Laser Propulsion: Wild Idea May Finally Shine

That's the belief of Leik Myrabo an aerospace engineeringprofessor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.He's an expert in directed energy applications, aerospace systems, space primepower, and advanced propulsion.

For the past three decades, Myrabo's burning desire has beento create and demonstrate viable concepts for non-chemical propulsion of futureflight vehicles through his research and company Lightcraft Technologies, Inc.,of Bennington, Vt.

"Typically, a new propulsion technology takes 25 yearsto mature...to the point where you can actually field it. Well, that time isnow," Myrabo told SPACE.com.

Real hardware...real physics

The brightest new news in beamed energy propulsion is thatexperiments are now underway at the Henry T. Nagamatsu Laboratory ofHypersonics and Aerothermodynamics at the IEAv-CTA in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil.

The work is being sponsored under internationalcollaboration between the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Researchand the Brazilian Air Force.

Basic research experiments using high-powered lasers areunderway in Brazil,with experts investigating the central physics of laser-heated airspikes andpulsed laser propulsion engines for future ultra-energetic craft.

At the Brazil-based lab, a hypersonic shock tunnel is linkedto two pulsed infrared lasers with peak powers reaching the gigawatt range -the highest power laser propulsion experiments performed to date, Myrabo said.

"In the lab we're doing full-size engine segment testsfor vehicles that will revolutionize access to space," Myrabo emphasized."It's real hardware. It's real physics. We're getting real data...and it'snot paper studies."

"Right now, we're chasing the data," Myrabo said."When you fire into the engine, it's a real wallop. It sounds like ashotgun going off inside the lab. It's really loud."

The laser propulsion experiments, Myrabo added, are alsorelevant to launching nanosatellites (weighing 1 to 10 kilograms) andmicrosatellites (10 to 100 kilograms) into low Earth orbit.

Highways of light

Creating and flying Myrabo's "highways of light"has been a methodical and step by step undertaking.

Back in 1996 through 1999, he flew Lightcraft prototypes viaa 10 kilowatt high-power infrared laser at WhiteSands MissileRange in New Mexico. In 2000 - sponsored under agrant to his company - he established a new world altitude record of over 230feet (71 meters) for laser-boosted vehicles in free fight.

Myrabo points to his new book "Lightcraft FlightHandbook, LTI-20," co-authored with John Lewis and recently published byApogee books, to explain his quest for low-cost, safe space access withbeamed-powered Lightcraft.

"The physics of high-power beamed energy propagationthrough the atmosphere...there's not a lot of expertise out there to make thisstuff real. It's completely out of the conventional box," Myrabo said."I've been working on it for 30 years. I know how to do it."

For decades, Myrabo said, what laser propulsion physicistshave been hungry to achieve is a couple of dollars per watt of laser energy."We're here now. It's a matter of will and do we want to do it. Thistechnology is now at the cusp of commercial reality."