The Laser Revolution Part II: Ground, Sea and Grid

The revolution continues! Warfare on the ground and sea will be heavily affected by megawatt-class lasers in the next two decades or so.

And, as we'll see, there are transformative applications in industry, energy generation, transportation and remote sensing.

The Laser Revolution Part I: Megawatt beams to the skies

There’s a laser revolution coming: a time when megawatt-scale beams will radically transform how we produce electricity, conduct war and even upset the nuclear world order. All they have to do it reach a certain convergence of price and power.

And by current projections, it will happen in the next two decades. 

The Lofstrom Loop: A Bridge to Space

Imagine you could take a train ride to space. Tracks that slope up into the sky, higher and higher, until you reach a plateau above the planet where it’s a straight line up to orbital velocity.

That’s what’s possible with a Lofstrom Loop. But sending you into orbit is just one of the things it can do!

Riding Sunbeams with Solar Sails

Reset your expectations of solar sails. They are a fast and free way to travel to any point in the Solar System, as many times as you want, any time of the year.

Solar sails can carry passengers and they have a nearly unlimited number of uses. You just have to... think big!

Hypervelocity Tether Rockets

Rotating tethers can reach incredible velocities when they are built out of high strength materials. With some design features, they can greatly surpass the exhaust velocities of chemical or even nuclear rockets. They can become propulsion systems with impressive performance... and might look like the classic 'saucer' spaceship.

How would they work? What performance could they achieve?

Fusion without Fissiles: Superbombs and Wilderness Orion

Fusion technology today relies on expensive, building-sized equipment for ignition, or the help of an already powerful fission detonation. What if we could do away with both?

Fusion power without the need for fissiles, but also small enough to be launched into space. It is possible, and eventually it will be practical. Let’s look at how that would work and its implications. 

Nuclear Conversion for Starship

There has been much discussion about converting the SpaceX Starship to use nuclear propulsion. It would allow for a great increase in specific impulse and a massive extension of mission capabilities.

But is it actually worthwhile?

Fusion Highways in Space

A transport system that can get spacecraft to Jupiter in 10 days, but without a massive onboard reactor, using antimatter fuel or riding a gigantic laser beam? 

What we need instead is a Fusion Highway to connect the Solar System in unprecedented ways. 

Moto-Orion: Mechanized Nuclear Pulse Propulsion

The Orion nuclear pulse propulsion concept has been around for over six decades now. It is powerful and robust, but lacks the flexibility and features we expect from many more modern designs.

Can we give it those additional capabilities?

Nuclear Photon Rockets: Flashlights to the Stars

In this post, we will have a look at the concept of using a nuclear photon rocket for interstellar travel. They are an old concept that should theoretically be the ultimate form of relativistic propulsion.

However, today they are unknown or unpopular. Why might that be the case?