Laser propulsion is a form of beam-powered propulsion where the energy source is a remote (usually ground-based) laser system and separate from the reaction mass. This form of propulsion differs from a conventional chemical rocket where both energy and reaction mass come from the solid or liquid propellants carried on board the vehicle.
The basic concepts underlying a photon-propelled "sail" propulsion system were developed by Eugene Sanger and the Hungarian physicist György Marx. Propulsion concepts using laser-energized rockets were developed in the 1970s by Arthur Kantrowitz and Wolfgang Moekel, with a variant using laser ablation pioneered by Leik Myrabo. An exposition of Kantrowitz's laser propulsion ideas was published in 1988.
Laser propulsion systems may transfer momentum to a spacecraft in two different ways. The first way uses photon radiation pressure to drive momentum transfer and is the principle behind solar sails and laser sails. The second method uses the laser to help expel mass from the spacecraft as in a conventional rocket. Thus, the first uses the laser for both energy and reaction mass, while the second uses the laser for energy, but carries reaction mass. Thus, the second is fundamentally limited in final spacecraft velocities by the rocket equation.
A laser-pushed lightsail is a thin reflective sail similar to a solar sail, in which the sail is being pushed by a laser, rather than the sun. The advantage of lightsail propulsion is that the vehicle does not carry either the energy source or the reaction mass for propulsion, and hence the limitations of the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation to achieving high velocities are avoided. Use of a laser-pushed lightsail was proposed initially by Marx in 1966, as a method of interstellar travel that would avoid extremely high mass ratios by not carrying fuel, and analyzed in detail by physicist Robert L. Forward in 1989. Further analysis of the concept was done by Landis, Mallove and Matloff, Andrews and others.
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The main objective of the course is to provide an overview of space propulsion systems. The course will also describe the basic design principles of propulsion systems.
This course is a "concepts" course. It introduces a variety of concepts in use in the design of a space mission, manned or unmanned, and in space operations. it is partly based on the practical space
The objective of the course is to present with different viewpoints, the lessons learned which lead to the decisions in the space exploration and their consequences today and for the decades to come.
The classical rocket equation, or ideal rocket equation is a mathematical equation that describes the motion of vehicles that follow the basic principle of a rocket: a device that can apply acceleration to itself using thrust by expelling part of its mass with high velocity can thereby move due to the conservation of momentum. It is credited to the Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (Константи́н Эдуа́рдович Циолко́вский) who independently derived it and published it in 1903, although it had been independently derived and published by the British mathematician William Moore in 1810, and later published in a separate book in 1813.
Spacecraft electric propulsion (or just electric propulsion) is a type of spacecraft propulsion technique that uses electrostatic or electromagnetic fields to accelerate mass to high speed and thus generate thrust to modify the velocity of a spacecraft in orbit. The propulsion system is controlled by power electronics. Electric thrusters typically use much less propellant than chemical rockets because they have a higher exhaust speed (operate at a higher specific impulse) than chemical rockets.
Beam-powered propulsion, also known as directed energy propulsion, is a class of aircraft or spacecraft propulsion that uses energy beamed to the spacecraft from a remote power plant to provide energy. The beam is typically either a microwave or a laser beam and it is either pulsed or continuous. A continuous beam lends itself to thermal rockets, photonic thrusters and light sails, whereas a pulsed beam lends itself to ablative thrusters and pulse detonation engines.
Explores the feasibility of electrically driven turbopumps for a bi-liquid engine in a sounding rocket, covering design, state-of-the-art comparisons, requirements, and future work.
In this report, a preliminary design study of a compact lunar reconnaissance drone module which will assist exploration rovers is presented. It is designed to assist future exploratory rover missions in difficult environments such as PSRs or extreme topogr ...
2022
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The thorough development of the hyperloop system does require the availability of reduced-scale models. They can be used for the fast prototyping of various components, as well as for studying critical phenomena that takes place in this peculiar transporta ...
This thesis presents the feasibility analysis and preliminary design of a new Lunar Reconnaissance Drone. The system’s objective, which is composed of the drone and a service station, is to assist a large-scale rover mission into low-light zones of the Moo ...