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LISP: Laser impulse space propulsion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2009

C.R. Phipps  and
M.M. Michaelis
C.R. Phipps
Affiliation:
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Mail Stop E543, Los Alamos, NM 87545
M.M. Michaelis
Affiliation:
University of Natal, Faculty of Science, Department of Physics, King George V Avenue, Durban 4001, South Africa
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Abstract

It is not often that a new form of transportation suddenly appears and replaces what was hitherto regarded as mankind's only realistic option. In space and upper atmosphere transportation, chemical rockets have held center stage for over half a century. Tsiokolvsky's ideas led to Wernher von Braun's V2, which in turn led to the Soyuz, Apollo, and Ariane programs and the Space Shuttle. But recently theoretical and computational studies as well as a few initial experiments have pointed to a new option: laser impulse space propulsion (LISP). This may offer a more efficient and less ecologically damaging means of putting payloads into orbit. The world high-power laser community is well suited to following and aiding developments in LISP, though most practical research is still at an embryonic level. Obviously an effort of the size required to develop a laser-driven low-earth-orbit (LEO) launcher would require a multinational commitment. LISP could then be regarded as a parallel challenge to those of achieving ICF rriicrofusion yield and of improving X-ray lasers, especially in the “water window.” Any physicist or engineer involved with the latter projects would find many points in common with the former. It therefore seems appropriate to briefly review the progress made in LISP and also to communicate some recent results from high-power laser-matter experiments that have lead to conceptual designs.

Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , March 1994 , pp. 23 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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