A Review of Laser Ablation Propulsion
- Photonic Associates, LLC, 200A Ojo de la Vaca Road, Santa Fe NM 87508 (United States)
- Bohn Laser Consult, Weinberg Weg 43, Stuttgart (Germany)
- Paul Scherrer Institut, CH5232 Villigen PSI (Switzerland)
- Department of Aerospace Engineering, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya (Japan)
- DLR Institute of Technical Physics, Stuttgart (Germany)
- Micro-Nano GCOE, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Nagoya, Aichi (Japan)
Laser Ablation Propulsion is a broad field with a wide range of applications. We review the 30-year history of laser ablation propulsion from the transition from earlier pure photon propulsion concepts of Oberth and Saenger through Kantrowitz's original laser ablation propulsion idea to the development of air-breathing 'Lightcraft' and advanced spacecraft propulsion engines. The polymers POM and GAP have played an important role in experiments and liquid ablation fuels show great promise. Some applications use a laser system which is distant from the propelled object, for example, on another spacecraft, the Earth or a planet. Others use a laser that is part of the spacecraft propulsion system on the spacecraft. Propulsion is produced when an intense laser beam strikes a condensed matter surface and produces a vapor or plasma jet. The advantages of this idea are that exhaust velocity of the propulsion engine covers a broader range than is available from chemistry, that it can be varied to meet the instantaneous demands of the particular mission, and that practical realizations give lower mass and greater simplicity for a payload delivery system. We review the underlying theory, buttressed by extensive experimental data. The primary problem in laser space propulsion theory has been the absence of a way to predict thrust and specific impulse over the transition from the vapor to the plasma regimes. We briefly discuss a method for combining two new vapor regime treatments with plasma regime theory, giving a smooth transition from one regime to the other. We conclude with a section on future directions.
- OSTI ID:
- 21439582
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1278, Issue 1; Conference: International symposium on high power laser ablation 2010, Santa Fe, NM (United States), 18-22 Apr 2010; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3507164; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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