A kilometer-scale, multi-100-megawatt phased-array laser to beam power to a vehicle that converts it to electrical power for a multi-megawatt electric propulsion system that produces a specific impulse of 58K s. This will enable velocities of 100 to 200 km/s, and would enable a mission to the solar gravity lens location of 550 AU in less than 15 years. This will be 9 to 18x faster than the Dawn Mission (11.5 km/s).
Tag: laser
Fiber topography
Spotting an undersea fault using fiber-optic cables
He and his team had disconnected the cable from all its usual sensors so they could use the fiber itself to sense vibrations on the ocean floor. By monitoring how light beamed and bounced through the transparent fiber, Lindsey’s team was able to describe the texture and topography of the earth it was buried in
Laser engraving
Zeptosecond measurement
Physicists have measured photoionization, in which an electron exits a helium atom after excitation by light – for the first time with zeptosecond (10^-21 seconds) precision. This is the greatest accuracy of time determination of an event in the microcosm ever achieved, as well as the first absolute determination of the timescale of photoionization.
Mapping Rome underground
We journeyed via the icy, crystal clear waters of subterranean aqueducts that feed the Trevi fountain and 2000 year old sewers which still function beneath the Roman Forum today, to decadent, labyrinthine catacombs. Our laser scans map these hidden treasures, revealing for the first time the complex network of tunnels, chambers and passageways without which Rome could not have survived as a city of 1M people.
Photonic Laser Thruster
This is of course a staple of science fiction, so it is nice to see it become real.
Solar Powered Lasers
There has been progress towards using solar powered lasers for Magnesium production. Having a profitable industrial application to fund and drive and scale the development of solar powered lasers is good news for accelerating solar powered lasers for space applications. They are scaling to 1 megawatt of solar collection and 30 watts of laser per square meter of collection area. A space based system could have 60 watts of lasers since there is no atmosphere blocking sunlight. Space based being application would then need another fresnel lens to focus the lasers for long range beaming.
Mosquito Laser
The patent trolls at Intellectual Ventures inventing something is a new development, although impractical given that malaria infested areas don’t usually have reliable power: it kills 100 mosquitoes / s within a 30m radius.
Space laser is best laser
NASA‘s Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) has made history using a pulsed laser beam to transmit data over the 384K km between the moon and Earth at a record-breaking download rate of 622 megabits per second
Directed energy weapons
Our conservative data tells us a shot of directed energy costs under $1. Compare that to the $100Ks it costs to fire a missile, and you can begin to see the merits of this capability.
a military with lasers is nearly here. pew pew pew!
Gregor J. Rothfuss 