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Company Aims To Launch Spacecraft On Beams of Microwaves
MarkWhittington writes: The quest for cheap access to space, to make space travel as inexpensive as air travel, has eluded engineers, government policy makers, and business entrepreneurs from before the beginning of the space age. It has become axiomatic, almost to the point of being a cliché, that the true space age will not begin until launch costs come down significantly. Forbes reported about a company called Escape Dynamics that has a unique approach to the problem. The company proposes to launch payloads into low Earth orbit on beams of microwaves.
There is a whitepaper linked from the company website:
http://escapedynamics.com/wp-c...
The short story
Microwave provides source of energy by targeting heat-absorbing material
Heat exchanger is used to heat and compress Hydrogen to 150 atmospheres
Hydrogen is fed to aerospike nozzle, which provide impulse thrust gt 750 seconds
Claims launcher will be able to provide 8% to 12% of total weight as cargo
Right now most of the website is pretty pictures and videos, time will tell
Wherever You Go, There You Are
I'd like you to point out any launch site for orbital rockets that is anywhere even remotely close to tall buildings or even aircraft flights? The FAA routinely makes a pretty large exclusion zone around any launch activity. With the recent launch disasters from SpaceX and Orbital-ATK, I think such warnings should be well heeded even for ordinary Kerosene fueled rockets, much less something with an exotic propulsion system like this. It sure isn't going to be launched out of Central Park or any other urban center.
Besides, the CEO addressed this specific issue in an interview recorded a few months ago. Not only is the launch going to be far from cities, it will also need to happen in an arid region in part due to the microwave power being absorbed by water in the atmosphere. In other words, it is likely that this won't be launched from KSC in Florida either.