A common theme in the planning of deep-space missions(and this blog), is slowing a spaceship down enough to enter into orbit around a particular planet or moon. As a general rule mission planners at NASA, ESA, and Roscomos need make sure the mission has enough fuel to get their ship going the right speed. Generally speaking you can slow your ship down using two tools, rocket fuel and the gravity of other planets (I won't try to communicate gravity boosts/br(e)aking because I'm not familiar enough with the concept to do a reasonable highschool physics explanation(use the link if you want to know more)). What I would like to suggest is a way to augment the rocket fuel option.
One of the many proposals that scientists and engineers have put forth for reducing the cost of launching ships into Earth orbit, is the use of micro-wave lasers (called masers) to help to heat up rocket fuel, the warmer the rocket fuel is, the more energy coming out of the engine's exhaust port.(this is like way over simplifying it). This is awesome and hopefully sooner than later it will be another alternative way for research satellites to enter orbit (humans may not want lasers pointed at their rocket ship during the near term (personally it would depend on proven safety records of various technologies available), but how does it help us change velocity around other planets. Short term, not at all. Looking towards the future, it isn't unreasonable that there will be a relatively steady stream of space probes , and hopefully human explorers, trying to get around the inner solar system. At that time governments and private bodies might begin to collaborate on creating a network of maser base stations on the larger rocks in the inner system of planets. Initially the stations would only be placed on our Moon and one of Mars' moons. Assisting astronauts on their missions to the Red planet and back, as time went on other large asteroids could add these laser arrays to increase mission flexibility.
While I am excited about this idea, that being said it wouldn't be perfect, getting the arrays at the target destinations would not be easy, so probably not a good idea for the first missions.
If engineers and budgets allowed for it, I would try to emphasize the energy beaming system to put out different kinds of power, from visible light to micro-waves. The larger range of frequencies would allow for different missions to benefit, for space probes returning from the outer planets, the beams could focus additional power for the ion engines, either reducing the needed mass of the solar panels or just overall boosting thrust. For missions not using ion engines, the focus would be on the use of the maser.
Additional ideas and comments are welcome, thanks for taking the time to read.
*7/26/2016 An edit I wrote break not brake, an observant reader had the decency to inform me of my mistake privately, Sorry 'bout that.
One of the many proposals that scientists and engineers have put forth for reducing the cost of launching ships into Earth orbit, is the use of micro-wave lasers (called masers) to help to heat up rocket fuel, the warmer the rocket fuel is, the more energy coming out of the engine's exhaust port.(this is like way over simplifying it). This is awesome and hopefully sooner than later it will be another alternative way for research satellites to enter orbit (humans may not want lasers pointed at their rocket ship during the near term (personally it would depend on proven safety records of various technologies available), but how does it help us change velocity around other planets. Short term, not at all. Looking towards the future, it isn't unreasonable that there will be a relatively steady stream of space probes , and hopefully human explorers, trying to get around the inner solar system. At that time governments and private bodies might begin to collaborate on creating a network of maser base stations on the larger rocks in the inner system of planets. Initially the stations would only be placed on our Moon and one of Mars' moons. Assisting astronauts on their missions to the Red planet and back, as time went on other large asteroids could add these laser arrays to increase mission flexibility.
While I am excited about this idea, that being said it wouldn't be perfect, getting the arrays at the target destinations would not be easy, so probably not a good idea for the first missions.
If engineers and budgets allowed for it, I would try to emphasize the energy beaming system to put out different kinds of power, from visible light to micro-waves. The larger range of frequencies would allow for different missions to benefit, for space probes returning from the outer planets, the beams could focus additional power for the ion engines, either reducing the needed mass of the solar panels or just overall boosting thrust. For missions not using ion engines, the focus would be on the use of the maser.
Additional ideas and comments are welcome, thanks for taking the time to read.
*7/26/2016 An edit I wrote break not brake, an observant reader had the decency to inform me of my mistake privately, Sorry 'bout that.
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