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Microwave guns for launching rockets and spacecraft

03.08.2015

Colorado-based Escape Dynamics has proposed launching rockets and spacecraft using microwave guns. Currently, drone control has already been demonstrated using a similar technology.

Within the framework of a private aerospace startup, a project has been proposed that involves a vertical launch (of a rocket or a spacecraft) from the surface of the Earth and its launch into the orbit of the planet using a system of narrowly focused microwave emitters installed in the area of the launch pad.

According to the plan of the developers, these emitters should heat up the hydrogen in the fuel tanks of rockets (or ships), which is then released from them and provides the necessary thrust. This, according to scientists, will increase the payload launched by rockets by reducing the launch mass of the carrier, which is attributable to fuel.

Scientists note that the project has a number of shortcomings. In particular, despite the fact that the prototype heat exchanger they developed receives more than 90 percent of the incoming microwave energy, it remains unclear how much of it is dissipated in the surrounding space between the emitter (gun) and receiver (potential rocket or ship).

In addition, a rocket launched by a microwave gun is potentially capable, according to scientists, of putting no more than 200 kilograms of payload into orbit and therefore is not capable of replacing heavy carriers.

The investment required to deploy the project (from zero to creating a prototype spacecraft) is estimated at one billion dollars. If start-ups start implementing the project in the near future, they will be able to complete it in 2020.

Similar projects have the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Mitsubishi, which in 2014 received 1,6 watts of electrical energy using a 50-kilowatt microwave beam directed at a rectenna located at a distance of 350 meters from the emitter. In 2018, the Japanese hope to launch a small satellite powered by microwave technology.

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