Météo-France (73 avenue de Paris
94165 Saint-Mande Cedex - France)
Abstract : Three sets of laser propulsion experiments have been conducted in South Africa. The first, on the MLIS kilowatt CO2 laser at Pelindaba, gave a surprisingly good result but could not be repeated after the laser chain was dismantled when South Africa's uranium isotope programme was closed. The second, conducted with a kilowatt CO2 laser module, produced unexpectedly weak propulsion. We give reasons for the discrepancy between the two experiments. In the third experiment, hybrid solar and laser propulsion was tested: laser momentum coupling was enhanced as a result of generation of a dusty plasma by the concentrated solar energy.
https://hal.univ-reunion.fr/hal-03543745 Contributor : Réunion UnivConnect in order to contact the contributor Submitted on : Wednesday, January 26, 2022 - 11:23:57 AM Last modification on : Monday, April 11, 2022 - 3:56:16 PM Long-term archiving on: : Wednesday, April 27, 2022 - 6:37:18 PM
M Michaelis, A Forbes, W Klopper, Hassan Bencherif, S Jolivet, et al.. Laser propulsion activity in South Africa. South African Journal of Science, AOSIS, 2006. ⟨hal-03543745⟩