Laser-boosted lightcraft technology demonstrator
Abstract
The detailed description and performance analysis of a 1.4 meter diameter Lightcraft Technology Demonstator (LTD) is presented. The launch system employs a 100 MW-class ground-based laser to transmit power directly to an advanced combined-cycle engine that propels the 120 kg LTD to orbit - with a mass ratio of two. The single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) LTD machine then becomes an autonomous sensor satellite that can deliver precise, high quality information typical of today's large orbital platforms. The dominant motivation behind this study is to provide an example of how laser propulsion and its low launch costs can induce a comparable order-of-magnitude reduction in sensor satellite packaging costs. The issue is simply one of production technology for future, survivable SSTO aerospace vehicles that intimately share both laser propulsion engine and satellite functional hardware.
- Publication:
-
Vision-21: Space Travel for the Next Millennium
- Pub Date:
- April 1990
- Bibcode:
- 1990vstn.nasa..252R
- Keywords:
-
- Laser Propulsion;
- Prototypes;
- Single Stage To Orbit Vehicles;
- Spacecraft Survivability;
- Technology Feasibility Spacecraft;
- Computer Aided Design;
- Cost Reduction;
- Launching Bases;
- Spacecraft Design;
- Launch Vehicles and Space Vehicles