Laser jet engine - a rocket engine in which the working fluid is obtained by evaporation of solid material or by heating a gas with a laser beam .
The laser used for acceleration is most often located outside the aircraft itself. When the laser is located at the starting point of movement, the main problem when moving over long distances is the braking of the device at the end point of the route.
This type of engine is more efficient to use in a vacuum, where there is no scattering of the laser beam by the atmosphere.
American developers in the early 90s believed that the laser engine should reduce the cost of putting goods into orbit due to the fact that the laser, as the main source of energy, is used repeatedly, unlike launch vehicles. Russian researchers have noted as an advantage the possibility of not using an oxidizing agent.
Laser engines using other propulsors also typically use a laser external to the object to transmit energy.
In particular, a “laser” engine can be understood as a combination of an external booster laser with a “sail” made of special material on the apparatus.
In 2007, a group of Japanese scientists led by Hideki Okamura developed a model of a low-power engine in which movement is imparted to a metal disk by heating it with a laser beam. [1] A green laser with a wavelength of 532 nm heats the metal, which leads to its expansion and the appearance on the surface of rapidly moving elastic waves that move around the center of the ring. In contact with the axis on which the disk is located, it begins to rotate.
Content
- 1 History
- 2 Projects
- 3 notes
- 4 References
History
In 1972, Astronautics and Aeronautics published the work of Arthur Robert Kantrowitz, Propulsion to Orbit by Ground Based Lasers, which proposed changing the approach to launching spacecraft. Instead of building larger and less efficient missiles, it was suggested that powerful lasers be used to launch small satellites.
Since 1986, a number of papers on problems related to laser engines were published by the American physicist Jordin Cara, who worked under a NASA grant.
Projects
Lightcraft is a joint project of the US Air Force and NASA , conducted in the 90s on the concept proposed by of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute . In experimental models, atmospheric air heated by a laser beam was used as a working fluid. The beam was transmitted to the aircraft from a laser located on the surface of the Earth. The experiments were conducted at the White Sands training ground of the Air Base. [2] In 2000, an experimental model measuring about 12 centimeters reached a height of 71 meters. Later, Professor Mirabeau founded Lightcraft Technologies [3] , which continues to develop laser jet engines. [four]
AKLRD (Aerospace Laser Jet Engine) is a project created and patented in 2005 [5] by a group of scientists from the Research Institute of Optoelectronic Instrumentation (NII OEP) led by Yu. Rezunkov. [6] A mock engine was created and experiments were conducted on a demonstration flight of the apparatus equipped with it with a total weight of 150 grams. [7] According to the Chemical Engineering Design Bureau (KBHA) [8] the development of the LRE (Laser rocket engine) has been carried out by the KBHA since 2002 in conjunction with the Scientific Research Institute of Industrial Engineering and the Research Center im. M.V. Keldysh .
DEEP-IN is a project being developed by a team of scientists (UCSB Experimental Cosmology Group) [9] of the University of California, Santa Barbara under the NASA program [10] . It is supposed to use a system of microlasers to disperse a plane aircraft, capable of interstellar flights at speeds approaching light. According to the authors of the project, such an apparatus is able to cover the distance to Alpha Centauri in 20 years. [eleven]
- Calculation of the efficiency of the laser engine
Notes
- ↑ A motor is created that works with a laser - Compulent
- ↑ NASA is testing a "laser engine" model - Kommersant newspaper
- ↑ Lightcraft Project - Lightcraft Technologies unopened (link not available) . Date of treatment June 27, 2015. Archived December 20, 2016.
- ↑ How Light Propulsion Will Work
- ↑ aerospace laser jet engine (RF № 2266420)
- ↑ Russian engineers proposed the concept of a laser rocket engine - Vesti.Ru
- ↑ Aerospace Laser Jet Engine - Scientific Research Institute of OEP
- ↑ Laser Rocket Engine (LRE) - KBHA
- ↑ Direct Energy Interstellar Precursors - UCSB Experimental Cosmology Group Archived April 12, 2016.
- ↑ Roadmap to stars
- ↑ Physicists: “laser” engine will reach Alpha Centauri in 20 years - RIA Novosti