A vehicle launched on a ground-based laser beam, flying as an airbreather to about Mach 5 and 30 km and as a laser thermal rocket in space, proposed for nanosatellites in PURSUE Release 06 record DOW-UAP-D143, Laser Lightcraft Nanosatellites, a Defense Intelligence Reference Document of 1 November 2010 (DIRDs).
The paper traces the project to a Strategic Defense Initiative Organization programme of the late 1980s, reports test flights on an Army laser at White Sands of up to 43 m vertically, estimates launch costs of $20 to $600 per kilogram of payload before life-cycle and operations costs, and says the Air Force Research Laboratory concluded its programme in 2005 before any launch to orbit. It states a military need for 1 to 2 kg nanosatellites with optical sensors for visual inspection of unknown objects in space and on Earth, without developing it, sets out missile-interception and swarm concepts, and closes by recommending that the research return to the United States.
A second paper in the release, on space access, reaches the opposite diagnosis: that cheap, frequent access to orbit is a matter of hardware discipline and infrastructure, not technology. See also Magnetohydrodynamic Propulsion.
Connections
DIRDs · PURSUE · Magnetohydrodynamic Propulsion · Defense Warning Office