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Laser-propulsion give space rockets a serious boost
Firing lasers up the backsides of rockets could accelerate them faster without requiring extra fuel (Original images: solarseven and Nikonaft via Shutterstock)
Russian scientists have proposed a novel way to accelerate a spaceship while in flight – firing a ground-based laser up its backside. The new technique uses a plasma flow caused by laser ablation to increase the exhaust efficiency of a traditional rocket propulsion system, and could theoretically accelerate an aircraft beyond Mach 10.In the process called laser ablation, a super high powered, focused laser beam can strike the surface of an object in space, and burn off that surface material, producing a plume of charged plasma particles that generates thrust.
It's a process that has been considered as a way to potentially blast space debris out of Earth orbit, but in this case it's seen as a way to provide extra thrust for a spaceship, without having to carry the primary energy supply on board the ship. Mind you, the ship does need to carry enough extra surface metal to be burned off in the ablation process.
A team of Russian scientists led by Yuri Rezunkov at the Institute of Optoelectronic Instrument Engineering, Russia has found a new way to use laser ablation to provide additional acceleration – by using it to increase the efficiency and thrust of regular gas blasting rockets.
I'm no rocket surgeon, so we'll let the researchers' press release speak to the specifics of the new method:
The researchers show that the effectiveness of current laser-propulsion techniques is limited by factors including the instability of supersonic gases as they flow through the gas nozzle, as well as the production of shock waves that “choke” the inlet of the nozzle, reducing thrust. But those effects can be reduced with the help of a laser-ablation plasma plume that is redirected so that it will flow close to the interior walls of the nozzle. Coupling the ablation jet with supersonic gas flow through the nozzle, they find, significantly improves the overall thrust generated by the nozzle. “Summarizing the data obtained, we can forecast the application of the supersonic laser propulsion techniques not only for launching small satellites to Earth orbits but also for additional acceleration of supersonic aircrafts to achieve Mach 10 and more,” Rezunkov said.
There's one significant potential problem with this – and it's the same thing that has stopped laser ablation from being a great way to blast space junk out of an increasingly cluttered orbital zone around the Earth.
The Earth-bound lasers would need to be incredibly powerful – powerful enough to vaporize metal from hundreds of miles away – and that kind of technology could easily be used to knock satellites off course, or damage pretty much anything that's sitting in orbit. The military applications are obvious, and with so much earthbound technology relying on those satellites, building a machine that could knock them out of the sky would be politically very difficult.
Likely the only way that a big enough laser array could be built without causing international turmoil would be to have it built by an international body that could guarantee it would never be used for military purposes. Good luck with that!
Source: The Optical Society
Source: http://www.gizmag.com/laser-propelled-ablation-space-rockets/34505/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
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Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
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Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
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