Photonic Laser Propulsion: Successfully tested

[rhoenix]

Tustin, CA – 20 Feb 2007 – Since Einstein, scientists have dreamed of Laser light powered rockets streaking through space at speeds approaching the speed of light. This vision came a step closer to reality on December 21, 2006, when Dr. Young Bae of the Bae Institute successfully demonstrated the world’s first Photonic Laser Thruster (PLT). Repeated experiments since then have reconfirmed results.

Dr. Franklin Mead, Senior Aerospace Engineer, and leading rocket scientist in laser and advanced propulsion at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) remarked, "I attended Dr. Bae's presentation about his PLT demonstration and measurement of photon thrust here at AFRL. It was pretty incredible stuff and to my knowledge, I don’t think anyone has done this before. It has generated a lot of interest around here."

Photon particles have been considered inefficient for producing thrust because they have zero mass, and no electric charge. The PLT system overcame the inherent photonic inefficiency by bouncing photons many times between two mirrors. Using a photonic laser and a sophisticated photon beam amplification system, Dr. Bae demonstrated that photonic energy could generate amplified thrust between two spacecraft by bouncing photons many thousands of times between them.

The patent-pending Bae Photonic Laser Thruster (PLT) was built and monitored with off-the-shelf laboratory components at the Southern California laboratory of the Bae Institute. With an amplification factor of 3,000, the photon thrust generated from the egg-sized laser head in the PLT prototype is equivalent to the thrust that can currently only be generated by orders-of-magnitudes larger and heavier industrial or weapons-grade lasers.

Although PLT can be used for a wide range of space applications, including accelerating spacecraft to near light speed, Dr. Bae has more immediate goals. He plans to include PLT in a Photon Tether Formation Flight (PTFF), another of his patent pending ideas for controlling spacecraft flying in formation with nanometer precision. By integrating PLT and space tethers, PTFF will enable the creation of large telescopes and synthetic apertures in space for high-resolution earth or space monitoring. PTFF promises precision 100,000 times greater than existing formation flying spacecraft missions, notably the Proba-3 currently planned by European Space Agency (ESA).

As a result of this successful PLT demonstration, thrust power requirements for a wide range of NASA spacecraft formation flight configurations, such as SPECS and MAXIM, are well within today's space power budgets. No other propellants are needed with PLT, resulting in mass energy savings, extended spacecraft missions, and contaminant-free operation for highly sensitive sensors.

Although built on a shoestring budget, the maximum photon thrust was demonstrated to be 35 µN, which is already close to, or sufficient power for many envisioned space missions. Encouraged by this breakthrough, the Bae Institute is actively seeking further funding for scaling up and constructing space flight ready PLT systems. “In addition to conventional formation flying, fractionated space architectures can benefit tremendously from the versatility and flexibility of a tightly controlled PLT system,” according to Dr. Bae.

The PLT project is currently funded by a Phase II NIAC grant (NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts), which funds only the most prestigious and revolutionary ideas for the next generation NASA space missions.

This, I find fascinating.

[Starglider]

Although PLT can be used for a wide range of space applications, including accelerating spacecraft to near light speed,

This seems to be a red herring. Normal photon drives can be used for this yes. This photon-bouncing technique cannot, because it works by pushing two spacecraft apart, which can only work over relatively short ranges. You could drop a sequence of mirrors behind your spacecraft and use the photon drive to accelerate them away from you, but at these thrusts the achievable 'exhaust' velocities you could get before the mirror gets out of range will be so low that you'd be much better off feeding the equivalent mass through ion engines or a mass driver.

This is probably just inadvertent hype on the part of the journalist though. Otherwise, cool.

[Majin Gojira]

Ahem...

Koushiryoku Beam !

I had to. Sorry.

[Feil]

What the hell is a non-photonic laser? Is there something about "light amplification by stimulated emission of radation" that doesn't make it completely clear?

And Starglider seems to have captured the reason why this would be impractical for primary thrust (though the scientist's proposition is interesting.

[Molyneux]

What the hell is a non-photonic laser? Is there something about "light amplification by stimulated emission of radation" that doesn't make it completely clear?

And Starglider seems to have captured the reason why this would be impractical for primary thrust (though the scientist's proposition is interesting.

Note that you didn't capitalise LASER...it seems to have made the jump from acronym to bona fide word. I remember hearing about "matter lasers", awhile back...

[drachefly]

He patented that? When? I think I pointed out that workaround here on SDN within a few months of my arrival.

[Xenophobe3691]

What the hell is a non-photonic laser? Is there something about "light amplification by stimulated emission of radation" that doesn't make it completely clear?

And Starglider seems to have captured the reason why this would be impractical for primary thrust (though the scientist's proposition is interesting.

Because, thanks to the wonders of quantum mechanics, atom lasers now exist!

[Starglider]

Because, thanks to the wonders of quantum mechanics, atom lasers now exist!

Also, thanks to the wonders of classical mechanics, ultrasonic ones.

I'm glad someone invented this because I love the sound of 'ultrasonic laser'. It's the ideal centerpiece for a B-movie mad scientist's lair. Or even better...

~Now talk, Miss Goodhope, or I shall unleash the power of the Ultrasonic Hyperatomic Megalaser! Mwhahaha!~

[Wyrm]

This seems to be a red herring. Normal photon drives can be used for this yes. This photon-bouncing technique cannot, because it works by pushing two spacecraft apart, which can only work over relatively short ranges.

Even if it didn't, the velocity you're receeding to a stationary mirror would kill the thrust by the redshift. Also, the greater the distance between the mirrors, the more energy is in the beam itself due to its length (which, of course, has to come from somewhere).

[drachefly]

1) doppler losses? If you're complaining about doppler losses, you're admitting that the ships in question have already attained relativistic velocities.

2) assumes you're replenishing the energy constantly. Otherwise the intensity will drop. Your thrust rate will drop too, but only as 1/d, which isn't so bad.

The real problem is going to be collimation. Get any significant distance, and your mirror is going to have to be really big and really perfect in order to get a good resonating cavity going.

So the question is, is the distance at which that's a problem large enough that you can get a decent boost in before you're out of range?