Efficiency of High-Power Laser Propulsion

Abstract

In the twentieth century the development of shuttlecrafts with rocket engines was considered as one of the promising ways in space exploration. But at the same time, the first projects vehicles with laser propulsion were proposed, in which high-power lasers were used to produce thrust. Now, the high-power laser propulsion systems are considered as one of the perspective and effective aerospace transport facilities. It is known that the laser propulsion is a part of more general concept of beamed energy propulsion. The characteristic property of laser propulsion is that the processes being responsible for the thrust production are switched on under the action of powerful laser radiation. In the paper, the power efficiency of laser propulsion as subject to the processes of the thrust production is considered.