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Modular Laser Launch Systems
BerntB writes "I don't think Jordin Kare's NIAC article has been covered? It's about using new laser tech to build modular
laser launch systems. The modular nature makes it easier to test and build. The only other launch ideas as cool are the Orion Project and the space elevator."
You know ... if you weren't continually hitting reload all the time, some of us might actually get to see the page before it combusts.
Here's a similar, but more interesting article: http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/prop16ap r99%5F1.htm
;-) A flying saucer that flies straight up by creating a vacuum above it that literally sucks it upward. Plus, it uses no propellant at all, which means significantly less weight to lift.
j an%5Fen virorocket.htm
Now that's cool.
Quote:
"You could go halfway around the world in 45 minutes, or from the Earth to the Moon in about 5-1/2 hours."
If NASA wants to build a base on the moon, they need something similar to this. Even if technical problems make it difficult to lift people this way (i.e. excessive heat, microwave radiation, or G-forces), it sounds perfect for lifting heavy cargo and supplies into orbit or to the moon.
Of course, I like the candle-based rocket fuel as well:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/29
Do i understand this correctly? Nasa wants to use a high-power ground-based laser as the heating supply for the power needed to ignite the H2 fuel in the Primary Propellant Tank? And as such they gonna aim their laser over very large distances to a so-called Leighweight Heat Exchanger as a shooting target ? (see figure 1 on page 6).
:
There's some rather severe pitfalls to be considered with this method
1. if the spacecraft abusively rotates around its length axis, the power from the ground laser might not be able to reach/hit that Heat Exchanger target any anymore, hence the rockets drops its speed instantly, leading to even more fatal flight manouvring.
2. As the rocket is approaching large heights, the laser guiding system will be put to the real test. When the "lock-in" signal is lost, you loose everything.
3. The conventional iginition system should allways be present as a backup system. In that case the net effect is just that extra costs are introduced.
I personally see this project more as a nice step-up for developing and deploying guided high-power ground-based lasersystems, which can follow ("lock-in") their target to very large heights. a laser "lock-in" in the end might even be possible on rockets (targets) which are near the moon. Doesn't that closely resemble the "StarWars" program of former president Ronnie Reagan ?
Robert
When are lasers going to finally hit 'real' efficiancies?
If we could launch 100-200 kg packages for a few hundred dollars/kg (instead of hundred times as much/kg), we could do lots of stuff we can't do today.
Payloads heavier than that (which can't be split into small parts) will be launched some other way.
(And, yes, the Pegasus exists today. How much did it cost/kg? How many universities can afford to send some instruments somewhere?)
Karma: Excellent (My Karma? I wish...:-( )
Well, unsubscribing to Scientific American was the right thing to do but Forward is generally credited as the first person to tie lasers and solar sails together One source that I have ("The Starflight Handbook") credits him with talking about these shortly after the invention of the laser in 1960. As you mentioned, Niven, Pournelle and Forward were friends and Niven credits a number of ideas he used in fiction to Forward.
A large amount of Niven's fiction starts with some scientific theory or fact that he found out. The talent is that he can build a world and wrap a story around that idea that is enjoyable reading and is still fun even if the theory is later discredited (e.g. his story "The Coldest Place"). Forward's forays into fiction were chock-a-block with ideas and facts but the writing itself was downright embarassing at times.
I stopped reading Scientific American when they stopped publishing real scientific papers edited into a readable state and instead filled their pages with tripe written by half-educated "journalists".