Microwave powered rockets

Microwave powered rockets

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MartG

Original Poster:

20,619 posts

203 months

Wednesday 22nd July 2015
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A company is developing a rocket which is powered by microwaves from a ground station. Full article here

http://www.visiontimes.com/2015/07/22/this-company...

There was a similar system proposed years ago which used lasers to heat the air inside a chamber in the base of the spacecraft - operated like a pulse jet. I saw video of one of the model tests and it seemed to work OK, but would have required much more powerful lasers than were available at the time

MartG

Original Poster:

20,619 posts

203 months

Saturday 1st August 2015
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ash73 said:
Quite a good sci-fi story to station a solar powered laser in close orbit around the Sun, and push planetary probes with sails around the solar system.
Or to send probes to the nearest stars ( see The Mote In God's Eye wink )

Moonhawk

10,730 posts

218 months

Monday 3rd August 2015
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ash73 said:
Japan have come up with a 2 petawatt laser, the DM compared it to the deathstarbiggrin
A Death star worth 100 billion galactic standard credits - surely?

Edited by Moonhawk on Monday 3rd August 10:31