Beam Powered Space Propulsion Work from NASA, DARPA and some other companies. April 7, 2017 May 6, 2011 by Brian Wang. NASA’s Ames Research Center has recently spent $2 million on a powerful microwave ...

Researchers calculated the efficiencies of four important features of microwave-beam-powered propulsion systems for rockets. These findings are critical to minimizing or possibly reducing the cost ...

By focusing this energy into a relativistic electron beam, the statite could propel a spacecraft over distances of 100 to ...

There was a previous Mass beam propulsion, an overview in 2015 by Gerald Nordley and Adam Crowl. In 1993, Gerald had a presentation on beam propulsion. In 2002, Jordan Kare published High-acceleration ...

Aerospace engineer Leik Myrabo is absolutely sure lasers are the future of flight, and he’s confident we’ll be flying at hypersonic speed using beam-powered propulsion within a generation. But ...

Laser propulsion could beam rockets into space Space launches have evoked the same image for decades: bright orange flames exploding beneath a rocket as it lifts, hovers and takes off into the sky.

Here’s the gist of how it would work: First, you actually need two spacecraft. A probe blasts off on a one-way trip to deep space, while a second vehicle remains locked in an Earth orbit and ...

In other words, all of the work of propulsion is being done on Earth, where the proton beam is based. As a result, the calculations around the probe spacecraft itself become less complex. Think ...

More information: Chen Cui et al, Vlasov simulations of electric propulsion beam, Plasma Sources Science and Technology (2024). DOI: 10.1088/1361-6595/ad98c0 Provided by University of Virginia ...

With the beam shining on the vehicle continually, it would take 8 to 10 minutes for a laser to put a craft into orbit, while microwaves would do the trick in 3 to 4 minutes.

“Beam concepts are unique in that their propulsion capability principally derives from the separation of power and propulsion subsystems from the spacecraft itself,” Limbach wrote, “thereby ...