Beamed Energy Propulsion (BEP) is a rocket science, but you dont have to be a rocket scientist to grasp the concept. Because it is simple as any ingenious ideas are. In the next four paragraphs and in simple layman terms I will explain it to you.
The essence of rocket science is the principle of reactive motion. Cars on the highway are pushing pavement and move against it, swimmer pushes with his limbs (or fins) the water, and swims. Space has nothing to push from, because space is empty. So rocket pushes off its own exhaust formed by burning hydrogen with oxygen. Of course, since the space is a vacuum, everything (fuel, burner, tanks, cryogenics, combustion chamber) must be carried onboard.
Rockets cargo space is very expensive. Why? Because with so many elements onboard: fuel, oxidizer, cryogenics, tanks, lines, you name it, there is a small (and very expensive room) for the payload. If we could only find a way to separate the heavy energy source from the rocket, the gain in efficiency of such rocket will be tremendous.
Energy can be delivered to the rocket from remote external source using light or, say, laser, x-ray, microwave high-power beams. With its mirrors, rocket will collect and focus that beams on its "fuel". Any solid matter can be a fuel. When high-power beam of photons is focused on a solid material, the material evaporates and ionizes instantaneously. The energy density in focused high-power beam exceeds hundreds to millions times one in the heat of burning hydrogen. Thus, beam-driven rocket will remain a rocket, it will be pushing from its own exhaust, but the energy of this exhaust is much higher, and the rocket itself is much lighter, comparing to hydrogen burners.
Payload, Propellant, Photons, Period! " 4P Principle introduced by Arthur Kantrowitz, the founder of modern laser propulsion, is an essence of BEP. Laser-driven rockets will consist of lightweight focusing optics (mirrors), modest amount of solid ablative propellant and the rest: the rest will be payload! No more fuel, cryogenics, tanks, oxygen, combustion chambers, etc.
How much beamed energy is more efficient than traditional hydrogen burning? About hundred times! Currently, for reasons disclosed above we are paying $10,000 per pound of payload delivered from ground to low earth orbit only. If space launches will be done with high-power lasers, the price per pound of payload will fall to $100! This is 100-fold gain!
Laser propulsion, i.e. use of high-power lasers for satellite launches and in-space transportation is the most developed today branch of BEP. Various types of laser propulsion have been demonstrated in field and by many research groups in lab. Microwave propulsion is another relatively well explored part of BEP. Much less is known about potential of x-rays and particle beams for BEP. Overall, beamed-energy propulsion remains a field of future technology, where a lot of interesting development will happen in the next several decades. Still, it is quite clear, that in the future a great part of space transportation will be driven by high-power photonic beams. - 16069
The essence of rocket science is the principle of reactive motion. Cars on the highway are pushing pavement and move against it, swimmer pushes with his limbs (or fins) the water, and swims. Space has nothing to push from, because space is empty. So rocket pushes off its own exhaust formed by burning hydrogen with oxygen. Of course, since the space is a vacuum, everything (fuel, burner, tanks, cryogenics, combustion chamber) must be carried onboard.
Rockets cargo space is very expensive. Why? Because with so many elements onboard: fuel, oxidizer, cryogenics, tanks, lines, you name it, there is a small (and very expensive room) for the payload. If we could only find a way to separate the heavy energy source from the rocket, the gain in efficiency of such rocket will be tremendous.
Energy can be delivered to the rocket from remote external source using light or, say, laser, x-ray, microwave high-power beams. With its mirrors, rocket will collect and focus that beams on its "fuel". Any solid matter can be a fuel. When high-power beam of photons is focused on a solid material, the material evaporates and ionizes instantaneously. The energy density in focused high-power beam exceeds hundreds to millions times one in the heat of burning hydrogen. Thus, beam-driven rocket will remain a rocket, it will be pushing from its own exhaust, but the energy of this exhaust is much higher, and the rocket itself is much lighter, comparing to hydrogen burners.
Payload, Propellant, Photons, Period! " 4P Principle introduced by Arthur Kantrowitz, the founder of modern laser propulsion, is an essence of BEP. Laser-driven rockets will consist of lightweight focusing optics (mirrors), modest amount of solid ablative propellant and the rest: the rest will be payload! No more fuel, cryogenics, tanks, oxygen, combustion chambers, etc.
How much beamed energy is more efficient than traditional hydrogen burning? About hundred times! Currently, for reasons disclosed above we are paying $10,000 per pound of payload delivered from ground to low earth orbit only. If space launches will be done with high-power lasers, the price per pound of payload will fall to $100! This is 100-fold gain!
Laser propulsion, i.e. use of high-power lasers for satellite launches and in-space transportation is the most developed today branch of BEP. Various types of laser propulsion have been demonstrated in field and by many research groups in lab. Microwave propulsion is another relatively well explored part of BEP. Much less is known about potential of x-rays and particle beams for BEP. Overall, beamed-energy propulsion remains a field of future technology, where a lot of interesting development will happen in the next several decades. Still, it is quite clear, that in the future a great part of space transportation will be driven by high-power photonic beams. - 16069
About the Author:
Andrew Pakhomov is founder and president of American Institute of Beamed Energy Propulsion, a nonprofit scientific organization serving to development and popularization of this space technology of tomorrow AIBEP He is also associate professor of physics at University of Alabama in Huntsville. To find more about current research on beamed energy propulsion, please visit official site of AIBEP.
