Using Lasers To Speed Spacecraft Everyone who reads my articles knows I am complaining about how we need speed in space travel. Scientists have announced a new method of space travel which would allow us to reach the edge of the solar system in 3 years. It took us 7 years to reach Saturn and 15 years for Voyager to reach the edge of the solar system. So, as you can see the method is about 5 times faster. Still too slow, but a big improvement. What scientists are finding out is there are different ways to use lasers to power spaceships. It is turning out lasers can have many uses on a spacecraft. One way is to use the pressure of photon radiation. It seems rather archaic, but a sail would be mounted on the spacecraft and a laser would fire light at the sail driving the ship. It may seem odd, but the ship could reach about 1/3 the speed of light this way. This is known as radiation pressure. The problem is the speed would build up gradually so there might not be any advantage for this system being used to fly to the closest planets and moons. The sails would have to be highly reflective. Another way to use a laser to power spaceflight is by thermal propulsion. A heat exchanger on the craft. A laser is fired at it then it expands out the back of the vehicle pushing it along. It is similar to a rocket, but it is much faster. No nuclear reactor is required and if we compare it to any other propulsion available today it is quite fast. It is said we could reach Mars in 45 days. Still far too slow, but far quicker than ever. It would also be far more fuel efficient because it has been calculated it would cycle and fire every 3,000 seconds. It has been estimated the efficiency would be about 12 times better. I think it is obvious these types of ships could never land on a planet with just this type of propulsion. They would probably need shuttles if manned, and if unmanned need an auxiliary power source for landing. While in space much less force is necessary to attain speed. It is obviously because of lack of resistance and gravity. The shuttles would need some other type of power which would allow them to go through the atmosphere of a planet, land, and then take off safely again. I can’t help but think, when I hear about using sails for spacecraft, how we seem to have gone full circle since the days of the sailing ships. If we didn’t learn about sails then, would we even think of this concept now? In all the years since the first sailing vessel, we haven’t seemed to increase the speed on ships that much. It is said the average speed of a ship is about 20 knots or about 23 miles per hour. There are some boats that go a lot faster, but the limit of even a hovercraft is about 89 miles per hour. Let’s hope the increases in speed for spacecraft come about a lot faster, and are a lot more significant. The first rocket is said to have been invented in China at about 1100 A.D. We are still using the same basic principle in our rockets today. Yes, while more sophisticated, a rocket today, aside from being bigger and using better rocket fuel, and being more powerful, is basically the same. When things are thought about that way, it becomes obvious we need an upgrade. This is where some secret projects come in. We have no idea what advancements have been found. The hint is we can already travel to the stars, but the only proof we have is the death bed confessions of two Lockheed Skunk Works managers. We suspect we have perfected anti-gravity, but we don’t know for sure. We don’t know how fast it could even propel a craft in space. Years ago, there was a forum held which was known as the Space Technology and Applications International Forum or STAIF. At it, Dr. Franklin Felber proposed using antigravity to power a spacecraft. He had claimed to have a solution to Einstein’s gravitational problem. He believed we could approach the speed of light this way in a spacecraft and the occupants would be safe from any pressures. It would be great to know what happened since then. Did scientists perfect this mode of propulsion and are we perhaps seeing it in our skies in the form of large black triangle ships, slowly cruising across our skies? Many suspect Dr. Felber’s ideas went to a secret black project and along with other antigravity scientists’ ideas. As I have said before there is a rumor which states there are three different types of antigravity engines which have been perfected and since this research has been going on for far longer than most suspect, it is quite possible. When we talk about a laser powered craft with a sail, other variations of the sail and laser have been suggested, such as one which bounce the photons, light particles, off the sail and to a mirror, which would then send them back to the sail. Talk about getting your moneys worth. There are even ideas about where the laser should be which powers the rocket. Should it be on the rocket or somewhere else? Some believe we should have a powerful laser mounted on the earth which could be aimed at the sail using the beam to push it along. The craft itself would have no power except what it gets from that. Another variation of the laser propulsion idea is to have an external pulsed laser shoot at a solid metal propellant, burning off plasma which would produce thrust. There are several variations of this idea using plasma. There is also the idea the laser should be a continuous beam which heats gas and expands it through the back. Many different ideas have been put forward for the type of laser power which could be used. One talks about converting the laser power to electricity and using that electricity in some way to power a spacecraft. It is considered a low-thrust option. So is the ION engine. It seems more ideas come out every day on how we should power our future spacecraft and when I look over as many as I can find, it seems we already have the answer to increase our speed in space and we should try and put some of this stuff into practice.
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