Posted on 07/23/2015 12:10:47 PM PDT by Red Badger
Those f@cking science ovens!
Nikola Tesla is smiling. Perhaps this is one application of R4th and payload weight that might be feasible.
Then they would have to overcome the obstacle of preventing birds from flying through the microwaves during take off. or just establish a no bird zone.
Once the astronauts reach their orbit they can then eat heir burritos that were cooked during the launch.
lol!
Yes. Sometimes there is just the bare fact of an application searching for a purpose. To me, this is the best I’ve seen given payload weights, technology, etc.
Besides the complications you rightly cite, there is also the problem dealing with the massive dispersion loss and the tremendous inefficiency that could be realized.
In the end, could this just be an innovative attempt to fool gullible politicians about some bad idea’s efficacy?
It’s been done before, for sure.
It’s a tight focusing problem. How few MOA (moments of arc) is a spacecraft at altitude?
Would the beam have to be coherent?
And we thought birds flying into windmills was a hazard.
How is that anti-gravity machine coming? Haven’t heard much lately. :-) Oh, and that cold fusion thingie too.
I have been following this company for a while now. It looks possible to me. They claim that if it works, they can get to orbit cheaper than Spacex’s reusable rockets.
Mr. Sulu, take us out of orbit, 1/4 defrost.
Minimal compared to the daily toll from windmills.
Thanks Red Badger, extra to APoD.
I think it would quickly become one.
That’s a very good question. I like to brainstorm about launch methods like this, and the general principle of “Leave the power source on the ground” is a great one... if we can make it work!
Just put a windmill on that thing and make it self-powered!
Dumb idea. Radiation drops off as to the square of the distance.
Organisms in the path of the invisible radiation will receive radiation.
If ground-based it will have to be turned off for around 14 hours daily.
Tracking it with the signal round-trip delay time, times two, will be critical and difficult. Providing a means to turn it off if some other object gets in the path of the radiation sounds good, but isn’t-it can not be shut off quickly due to the delay time. More? no, that’s enough.
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