Laser-Powered Lightcraft "At the Cusp of Commercial Reality"

[Studeo]

http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-amp-space/article/2009-07/high-powered-lightcraft-experiments-hint-future-space-travel

[morguana]

http://i.space.com/images/090728-Lightcraft-art-02.jpg
Artist's concept of Lightcraft in hypersonic mode. Credit: Media Fusion; Courtesy of NASA


Real hardware...real physics

The brightest new news in beamed energy propulsion is that experiments are now underway at the Henry T. Nagamatsu Laboratory of Hypersonics and Aerothermodynamics at the IEAv-CTA in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil.

The work is being sponsored under international collaboration between the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Brazilian Air Force.

Basic research experiments using high-powered lasers are underway in Brazil, with experts investigating the central physics of laser-heated airspikes and pulsed laser propulsion engines for future ultra-energetic craft.

At the Brazil-based lab, a hypersonic shock tunnel is linked to two pulsed infrared lasers with peak powers reaching the gigawatt range - the highest power laser propulsion experiments performed to date, Myrabo said.

"In the lab we're doing full-size engine segment tests for vehicles that will revolutionize access to space," Myrabo emphasized. "It's real hardware. It's real physics. We're getting real data...and it's not paper studies."

"Right now, we're chasing the data," Myrabo said. "When you fire into the engine, it's a real wallop. It sounds like a shotgun going off inside the lab. It's really loud."

The laser propulsion experiments, Myrabo added, are also relevant to launching nanosatellites (weighing 1 to 10 kilograms) and microsatellites (10 to 100 kilograms) into low Earth orbit.
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090729-tw-laser-lightcraft.html

[Luke]

Theyre "on the cusp" for like, 10 years
see here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtH-SxqdtaA
Laser in GW range propelling light craft,, in 1 -2 kg range .. there is a problem of staying in the focused beam in longer range (reached ~250 ft so far IIRC, then falling out of focus)
Needs air or other gas to "ignite" /plasmify. So for out-of atmosphere flight will need a on-board fuel storage and delivery.

In my opinion, money sink, hype and distraction.

There is a cheap and proven space technology: the Space Ship One (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipOne), that won X Prize in 2004
Why there is little to no media hype?
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/100205-melvill-466-4p.jpg
Theyre currently working on 20-passenger version, funded by Sir Richard Branson ... still behind schedule, because a streak of "incidents"

[tone3jaguar]

The amount of laser power it would take to push an aircraft up through the atmosphere is not really realistic.

[Lost Soul]

External power source - just like what the Atlanteans used to power their airships.