New experiments on laser thrust show that it is possible to build a hypersonic aircraft and beam a spacecraft into Earth's orbit.
Indeed, revolutionary laser-powered ships could replace jet planes in modern commercial travel. Passengers could be airlifted from one side of the planet to the other in less than an hour - just enough time to open those impenetrable peanut bags. Moreover, thrust on radiated energy can make orbital flight easy, rather than difficult and dangerous.
Believes in Leek Mairabo, professor of applied mechanics at Rensselier Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He is an expert on controlled energy devices, aerospace systems, space power plants and advanced types of thrust.
Over the past three decades, Mairabo's burning desire has been to create and demonstrate a viable non-chemical thrust concept for future flight crews in his research with Lightcraft Technologies, Inc., based in Bennington, Vermont.
“Usually, it takes 25 years for a new traction technology to mature… until you can apply it. Yes, it’s just that time now,”Mairabo told SPACE.com
Real hardware … real physics
The most significant news in the field of radiant thrust is that the experiment is now under way at the Henry T. Nagamatsu Hypersound and Aeronautics Laboratory in San Jose dos Campos, Brazil.
The work is funded under an international cooperation agreement by the Office of Scientific Research of the US Air Force and the Brazilian Air Force.
Basic research experiments use high-power lasers available in Brazil, where experts are exploring the fundamentals of the physics of laser-heated air jets and pulsed laser engines for future high-energy ships.
In a Brazilian laboratory, a hypersonic shock tunnel is connected to two pulsed infrared lasers, which peak power in the order of a gigawatt - the highest power achieved in laser-thrust experiments today, Mairabó explains.
“In the laboratory, we are testing full-size engines that should revolutionize space travel,” emphasizes Mairabo. “These are real products. This is real physics. We get real data … and this is not paper research."
“We're getting data right now,” explains Mairabo. “When you start the engine, it’s a real rumble. Sound like a gun is being fired inside the laboratory. It's really loud."
Experiments on laser propulsion, Mairabo adds, also have to do with launching nanosatellites (weighing 1 to 10 kilograms) and microsatellites (10 to 100 kilograms) into low Earth orbit.
Highways of light
Creation and flights of "highways of light" for Mayrabo was methodical, step by step, work.
From 1996 to 1999, he launched prototypes of his devices with a 10-kilowatt infrared laser at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. In 2000, sponsored by a grant from his company, he set a world altitude record of over 230 feet (71 meters) for laser-lifted models in free flight.
Mairabo, co-authored with John Lewis, in his new book, The LTI-20 Laser-powered Ship Handbook, recently published by Apogee, explains his desire for inexpensive, safe access to space using a laser-powered spacecraft.
“With respect to high energy physics … moving through the atmosphere using radiated energy … there is not enough experience in the world to make such things real. It's completely out of the ordinary,”explains Mairabo. “I've been working on this for 30 years. I know how to do it."
For decades, laser-propelled physicists have dreamed of achieving laser energy costs of two dollars per watt, Mairabo explains. “We have achieved this. Now it is a matter of will and whether we want to do it. This technology is now within commercial reach."
