Plasma train to the stars

[khaosworks]

Plasma Beam Eyed in Space Travel
By Lakshmi Sandhana
02:00 AM Oct. 19, 2004 PT

Imagine spaceships being catapulted and caught in space using "gloves" of high-energy plasma beams.

That's the vision of Robert Winglee, a professor at the University of Washington who is leading the team that's pioneering the concept of the Mag-beam, or magnetized-beam plasma propulsion. Winglee wants to incorporate plasma beam stations at each end of an interplanetary flight path to speed up and slow down a spacecraft.

The idea began receiving attention from NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts when the institute awarded $75,000 earlier this month to identify the challenges involved in implementing it.

Under the concept, a space-based outpost station would generate a high-energy plasma beam aimed at a spaceship equipped with a sail, resulting in it being thrust out into space. In the startup phase, the plasma station would direct bursts of plasma beams at the spaceship over a period of several days, refueling in the interim, to bring the spacecraft to the right speed required for its flight between the planets.

"Think of a system where large power units are placed permanently in orbit around critical regions of a planet," said Winglee. "With a beamed plasma system, spacecrafts can be pushed or pulled to perform orbital transfers around the planet or accelerated to other planets at essentially no cost."

Once shot off into space, onboard propulsion units would provide a spacecraft some power for minor flight corrections, but not enough to decelerate, which would be handled by a plasma station orbiting the destination.

The stations themselves would be fueled by nuclear power systems or solar-electric power systems augmented with fuel cells. By shifting the power source off the spacecraft and onto the station, Winglee hopes to gain an awesome level of speed.

I love the idea. Right now there seems to be issues about beam stability (not to mention cost), but the image of spacecraft zipping around the solar system on plasma beam-propelled sails, the beam sattelites in orbit flashing rapidly as they accelerate and decellerate outgoing and incoming craft... that's just beautiful. Even if it doesn't work, I'm stealing this for background tech in stories, like the ion lifters Wired reported on a year ago.

Comments

[kaasirpent]

Do you read Robert Forward? He has a couple of sci-fi stories that use the idea of laser-propelled craft with huge sails.

The one I remember is called Flight of the Dragonfly. It's a damned good read, if you like pure science fiction written by an actual physicist with a flair for storytelling. :)

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know Forward's stuff. The idea of laser-propelled spaceflight isn't new anymore. One particularly poetic image can be found in the Millennium Foundation's manifesto (the foundation is a group dedicated to promoting space colonization), where a ground-based laser station named Bifrost is shown zapping a sail into orbit with a rainbow burst of light.

(Bifrost, for those reading who are not geeky enough - and you all should be ashamed! - is of course the Rainbow Bridge of Norse myth that links Midgard - Earth - with heavenly Asgard)

[aunty_marion]

Reminded me of the Monk space-drive machine (?hachiropth thisp? or something) in Larry Niven's The Fourth Profession. A thing the size of a locomotive that incites a star to put out a flare to drive their star-sail.

[akawil]

Seems sort of fragile, though. Your spaceship gets going, and then someone blows up the plasma beam station at the other end before you get there.

Could be a good premise for a story, I suppose.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... primitive repulsor beams. I like it.