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| Photonic Laser Thruster
This is interesting and potentially important, considering the technology can be scaled:
Original older press-release: BAE Institute - First Photonic Laser Thruster Successfully Demonstrated Quote: First Photonic Laser Thruster Successfully Demonstrated
Tustin, CA – 20 Feb 2007 – Since Einstein, scientists have dreamed of Laser light powered rockets streaking through space at speeds approaching the speed of light. This vision came a step closer to reality on December 21, 2006, when Dr. Young Bae of the Bae Institute successfully demonstrated the world’s first Photonic Laser Thruster (PLT). Repeated experiments since then have reconfirmed results.
Dr. Franklin Mead, Senior Aerospace Engineer, and leading rocket scientist in laser and advanced propulsion at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) remarked, "I attended Dr. Bae's presentation about his PLT demonstration and measurement of photon thrust here at AFRL. It was pretty incredible stuff and to my knowledge, I don’t think anyone has done this before. It has generated a lot of interest around here."
Photon particles have been considered inefficient for producing thrust because they have zero mass, and no electric charge. The PLT system overcame the inherent photonic inefficiency by bouncing photons many times between two mirrors. Using a photonic laser and a sophisticated photon beam amplification system, Dr. Bae demonstrated that photonic energy could generate amplified thrust between two spacecraft by bouncing photons many thousands of times between them.
The patent-pending Bae Photonic Laser Thruster (PLT) was built and monitored with off-the-shelf laboratory components at the Southern California laboratory of the Bae Institute. With an amplification factor of 3,000, the photon thrust generated from the egg-sized laser head in the PLT prototype is equivalent to the thrust that can currently only be generated by orders-of-magnitudes larger and heavier industrial or weapons-grade lasers.
Although PLT can be used for a wide range of space applications, including accelerating spacecraft to near light speed, Dr. Bae has more immediate goals. He plans to include PLT in a Photon Tether Formation Flight (PTFF), another of his patent pending ideas for controlling spacecraft flying in formation with nanometer precision. By integrating PLT and space tethers, PTFF will enable the creation of large telescopes and synthetic apertures in space for high-resolution earth or space monitoring. PTFF promises precision 100,000 times greater than existing formation flying spacecraft missions, notably the Proba-3 currently planned by European Space Agency (ESA).
As a result of this successful PLT demonstration, thrust power requirements for a wide range of NASA spacecraft formation flight configurations, such as SPECS and MAXIM, are well within today's space power budgets. No other propellants are needed with PLT, resulting in mass energy savings, extended spacecraft missions, and contaminant-free operation for highly sensitive sensors.
Although built on a shoestring budget, the maximum photon thrust was demonstrated to be 35 µN, which is already close to, or sufficient power for many envisioned space missions. Encouraged by this breakthrough, the Bae Institute is actively seeking further funding for scaling up and constructing space flight ready PLT systems. “In addition to conventional formation flying, fractionated space architectures can benefit tremendously from the versatility and flexibility of a tightly controlled PLT system,” according to Dr. Bae.
The PLT project is currently funded by a Phase II NIAC grant (NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts), which funds only the most prestigious and revolutionary ideas for the next generation NASA space missions.
| Newer Article: Thruster May Shorten Mars Trip Quote: Thruster May Shorten Mars Trip
TUSTIN, Calif., Sept. 7, 2007 -- An amplified photon thruster that could potentially shorten the trip to Mars from six months to a week has reportedly attracted the attention of aerospace agencies and contractors.
The demonstration produced a photon thrust of 35 µN and is scalable to achieve much greater thrust for future space missions, the institute said. Applications include highly precise satellite formation flying configurations for building large synthetic apertures in space for earth or space observation, precision contaminant-free spacecraft docking operations, and propelling spacecraft to unprecedented speeds -- faster than 100 km/sec.
“This is the tip of the iceberg," Bae said in a statement from the institute. "PLT has immense potential for the aerospace industry. For example, PLT-powered spacecraft could transit the 100 million km to Mars in less than a week.”
Bae founded the institute to develop space technologies and has pursued concepts such as photon, antimatter and fusion propulsion for more than 20 years at SRI International, Brookhaven National Lab and the Air Force Research Lab. He has a PhD in atomic and nuclear physics from UC Berkeley.
Several aerospace organizations have expressed interest in collaborating with the institute to further develop and integrate PLT into civilian, military and commercial space systems, Bae said, and he has recently been invited to present his work by NASA, JPL, DARPA and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).
Franklin Mead, a senior aerospace engineer at AFRL, said in a Bae Institute statement that the PLT demonstration and measurement of photon thrust is "pretty incredible. I don’t think anyone has done this before. It has generated a lot of interest."
The institute said Bae’s paper, “Photonic Laser Propulsion: Proof-of-Concept Demonstration,” was recently accepted for publication this year in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets. It documents how he overcame the inherent inefficiencies of traditional photon thrusters in generating thrust by amplification with the use of an innovative optical cavity concept.
"For decades, rocket scientists have tried to overcome the inefficiency of photon thrusters by amplification based on optical cavities separated from laser sources, but failed," the institute said. "In contrast, Bae’s PLT (patent pending) places the laser medium within a resonant optical cavity between two platforms to produce a very stable and reliable thrust that is unaffected by mirror movement and vibration -- ideal for spacecraft control or propulsion."
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Last edited by Eduardo : 09-12-2007 at 03:55 PM.
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09-12-2007, 03:50 PM
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