Improved efficiency in rocket engine performance via a laser kinetic energy transfer chamber allowing single vehicle orbital flights

摘要

Although the proposal of applying lasers to the exhaust plasma of rockets to increase thrust and fuel efficiency is not original, directions in rocket propulsion which incorporate lasers that are simplistic, inexpensive, practical, and efficient are over looked. Conversely, the consideration of rocket propulsion methods using lasers has a focus on extravagant, complex, and expensive directions that are difficult to develop in both cost and available technology. Hence, a review of two current popular published proposals and developments in rocket propulsion systems that use lasers are given. Thereafter, the theoretical laser kinetic energy transfer (LKET) concept is introduced and described in mathematical detail. The LKET propulsion concept and system is a simple and inexpensive method where the exhaust plasma, after leaving the combustion chamber of a conventional rocket engine, is subjected to the bombardment of photons that compose a laser beam within a specialized chamber built into the rocket engine referred to as an LKET chamber. Therefore, within the LKET chamber, the lasers transfer additional kinetic energy to the molecules of the exhaust plasma resultantly increasing the efficiency and thrust value of the engine specifically in reference to "delta v" or change in velocity which corresponds to a value of specific impulse. The notion of the LKET rocket propulsion concept that gives it an advantage over other more complex laser propulsion concept proposals is the idea of replacing the weight of rocket boosters for orbital flights with the weight of a laser power source (e.g. battery, fuel cell, reactor, etc.).