A hydrogen-fuelled laser-heated thruster can produce a specific impulse of 500-800 seconds - sufficient to reach Earth orbit with plausible single-stage mass ratios - at exhaust temperatures between 1000 K and 2000 K. At these low temperatures, a solid heat exchanger can be both cheap and efficient. A heat-exchanger-based thruster has a fundamental advantage over other laser-heated engines in that it is omnivorous - any laser wavelength or pulse format is accpetable. We present some options for vehicle and launch-system design and estimate their performance.
Laser-heated heat-exchanger thruster
Lasererhitzter Wärmetauscher zur Schubverstärkung
US Government Reports ; Apr ; 1-31
1991
31 Seiten, 8 Bilder, 13 Quellen
Report
English
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