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US 4,036,012 AGranted
Laser powered rocket engine using a gasdynamic window
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army
InventorMichael J. Monsler
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Optics capture and concentrate laser radiation and send it through a gasdynamic window which is formed by supersonic expansion of unseeded hydrogen gas exiting a passageway directly under the opening. Seeded fuel is inserted into the chamber where it is heated by the laser radiation and the energy of the heated gas is converted into kinetic energy of a high velocity by means of a rocket nozzle.
Claims3
A power system for a vehicle comprising:
- a nozzle having a heating chamber and an exhaust outlet;
- a propellant;
- first means for providing said propellant to said heating chamber;
- a gasdynamic window in said heating chamber;
- said gasdynamic window formed by second means which exhausts propellant at supersonic speed across said window;
- laser radiation being directed through said gasdynamic window to said propellant for heating said propellant;
- said propellant having an unseeded portion which is transparent to the laser radiation and a seeded portion which is opaque to said laser radiation;
- said second means directing the propellant's unseeded portion across said window;
- an absorption zone inside said heating chamber remote from said window;
- and third means for directing said seeded portion of the propellant to said absorption zone without interferring with the laser radiation until reaching the absorption zone.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.