Space

Laser-propulsion could give space rockets a serious boost

Laser-propulsion could give space rockets a serious boost
Firing lasers up the backsides of rockets could accelerate them faster without requiring extra fuel (Original images: solarseven and Nikonaft via Shutterstock)
Firing lasers up the backsides of rockets could accelerate them faster without requiring extra fuel (Original images: solarseven and Nikonaft via Shutterstock)
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Firing lasers up the backsides of rockets could accelerate them faster without requiring extra fuel (Original images: solarseven and Nikonaft via Shutterstock)
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Firing lasers up the backsides of rockets could accelerate them faster without requiring extra fuel (Original images: solarseven and Nikonaft via Shutterstock)
The effectiveness of current laser-propulsion techniques is limited by the instability of supersonic gas flow, caused by shock waves that “choke” the inlet of the nozzle, reducing thrust. Those effects can be reduced with the help of laser ablation, redirecting the plasma plume so that it flows close to the interior walls of a supersonic nozzle and significantly improving the overall thrust (Image credit: Y.Rezunkov/IOIE)
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The effectiveness of current laser-propulsion techniques is limited by the instability of supersonic gas flow, caused by shock waves that “choke” the inlet of the nozzle, reducing thrust. Those effects can be reduced with the help of laser ablation, redirecting the plasma plume so that it flows close to the interior walls of a supersonic nozzle and significantly improving the overall thrust (Image credit: Y.Rezunkov/IOIE)

Russian scientists have proposed a novel way to accelerate a spaceship while in flight – firing a ground-based laser up its backside. The new technique uses a plasma flow caused by laser ablation to increase the exhaust efficiency of a traditional rocket propulsion system, and could theoretically accelerate an aircraft beyond Mach 10.

In the process called laser ablation, a super high powered, focused laser beam can strike the surface of an object in space, and burn off that surface material, producing a plume of charged plasma particles that generates thrust.

It's a process that has been considered as a way to potentially blast space debris out of Earth orbit, but in this case it's seen as a way to provide extra thrust for a spaceship, without having to carry the primary energy supply on board the ship. Mind you, the ship does need to carry enough extra surface metal to be burned off in the ablation process.

A team of Russian scientists led by Yuri Rezunkov at the Institute of Optoelectronic Instrument Engineering, Russia has found a new way to use laser ablation to provide additional acceleration – by using it to increase the efficiency and thrust of regular gas blasting rockets.

The effectiveness of current laser-propulsion techniques is limited by the instability of supersonic gas flow, caused by shock waves that “choke” the inlet of the nozzle, reducing thrust. Those effects can be reduced with the help of laser ablation, redirecting the plasma plume so that it flows close to the interior walls of a supersonic nozzle and significantly improving the overall thrust (Image credit: Y.Rezunkov/IOIE)
The effectiveness of current laser-propulsion techniques is limited by the instability of supersonic gas flow, caused by shock waves that “choke” the inlet of the nozzle, reducing thrust. Those effects can be reduced with the help of laser ablation, redirecting the plasma plume so that it flows close to the interior walls of a supersonic nozzle and significantly improving the overall thrust (Image credit: Y.Rezunkov/IOIE)

I'm no rocket surgeon, so we'll let the researchers' press release speak to the specifics of the new method:

The researchers show that the effectiveness of current laser-propulsion techniques is limited by factors including the instability of supersonic gases as they flow through the gas nozzle, as well as the production of shock waves that “choke” the inlet of the nozzle, reducing thrust. But those effects can be reduced with the help of a laser-ablation plasma plume that is redirected so that it will flow close to the interior walls of the nozzle. Coupling the ablation jet with supersonic gas flow through the nozzle, they find, significantly improves the overall thrust generated by the nozzle. “Summarizing the data obtained, we can forecast the application of the supersonic laser propulsion techniques not only for launching small satellites to Earth orbits but also for additional acceleration of supersonic aircrafts to achieve Mach 10 and more,” Rezunkov said.

There's one significant potential problem with this – and it's the same thing that has stopped laser ablation from being a great way to blast space junk out of an increasingly cluttered orbital zone around the Earth.

The Earth-bound lasers would need to be incredibly powerful – powerful enough to vaporize metal from hundreds of miles away – and that kind of technology could easily be used to knock satellites off course, or damage pretty much anything that's sitting in orbit. The military applications are obvious, and with so much earthbound technology relying on those satellites, building a machine that could knock them out of the sky would be politically very difficult.

Likely the only way that a big enough laser array could be built without causing international turmoil would be to have it built by an international body that could guarantee it would never be used for military purposes. Good luck with that!

Source: The Optical Society

12 comments
12 comments
CaptD
This idea has been round for a long time as a way to "power" a Space Elevator on both the Earth and the Moon.
If we had true World Leaders, they would Champion Solar from Space and then lead the World toward a safe new future by WORKING TOGETHER; these books explain how:

The High Frontier by Gerard K. O'Neill, Colonies In Space by A. Heppenheim­er. The Third Industrial Revolution by G. Harry Stine The Space Enterprise by Philip Robert Harris Mining the Sky by John S. Lewis
TomS
Lasers used in propulsion have been proposed since the 60's. You can find a NASA article propelling a shuttle shaped vehicle receiving multiple laser beams to create thrust. Here is an actual use of a laser to propel and object. http://www.lightcrafttechnologies.com/technology.html LightCraft Launch Oct 2000 - laserbeam powered propulsion Uploaded on Jun 27, 2007 Prior to liftoff, a jet of compressed air is used to spin the lightcraft to about 10,000 revolutions per minute (RPMs). The spin is needed to stabilize the craft gyroscopically.
Neil Farbstein
That was invented long time ago by Harrop in the united states and I independently invented too. Its in my patent notebooks.
Chizzy
I first came across this idea in the 1992 book The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps, by Marshall Savage. (Wonder if and when it was translated to Russian) The light craft (LTI mentioned above) has to be the coolest implementation to date (despite the tiny altitude yet reached). I've wondered for some time if a horizontal application of a laser powered LTI system was possible with an onboard laser to create a "fuel less" jet engine.
Mike DaBomb
50 years from now some US-based company will dust off the Ruskie's plans, build a rocket out of it and watch it fail on a launch pad in Virginia. Oh wait, that happened already?
Gadgeteer
Guys, the Russians aren't claiming they just invented laser propulsion. Read it again. They're saying their technology addresses inefficiencies in past designs.
Will_Power
Gadgeteer, look at the first sentence of the article: "Russian scientists have proposed a novel way to accelerate a spaceship while in flight – firing a ground-based laser up its backside." What the other posters are pointing out is it's not novel, it's an old idea. No, the Russians aren't claiming it's a new idea, but are questioning the author's use of the term "novel."
Slowburn
@ Mike DaBomb Prove that it was a problem with the engine parts that came from Russia.
Slowburn
I think you would get greater use by using the laser to heat hydrogen reaction mass.
Madlyb
Not so novel, as this has been detailed many times. My first exposure was in Dean Ing's book, "The Big Lifters", in 1988.
He combined laser enhanced propulsion with a supersonic bullet train as the launch mechanism. It was a clever solution and a great little read.
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