New Calculations for Solar Power Satellites - and a reusable moonship demonstrator.

Applying knowledge of Plasmas

http://books.google.com/books?id=Yk8...age&q=&f=false

to MEMs based rocket arrays

http://pdf.aiaa.org/preview/CDReadyM...V2005_3650.pdf

and MEMs based external plasma scramjet arrays,

provides a means to create very interesting single stage moon-ship.

Imagine a 33 foot diameter disk some 20 feet thick at the center
massing 19.22 tons with the masses assigned as follows;

6.34 tons - liquid hydrogen in a sphere 18.2 feet in diameter.
10.00 tons - useful payload inside the disk.
2.88 tons - structural mass

The top and bottom shell contain a thin film high-efficiency
photovoltaic layer. The rim contains millions of tiny rockets,
powered by the photovoltaic layer creating what I call a propulsive
skin.

The PV layer operates in sunlight. On a bright day, 180 kW is
produced. In space 250 kW is produced from sunlight alone when the
vehicle is oriented to intercept the sun. Enough to support
passengers and crew totaling 30 people.

This PV shell does more than convert sunlight to electricity however.
It is also capable of accepting a band-gap matched laser beam at up to
32.3 kW per square inch and converting that laser energy with nearly
perfect efficiency to tremendous power needed for the plasma
engines!

That means the disk can accept nearly 4 billion watts of band-gap
matched laser energy and is capable of operating plasma rockets (and
jets) that have exhaust speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour while
pulling 4 gees of thrust!

To fly to the moon in this vehicle requires a 3 mile diameter
inflatable concentrator be placed geosynchronous orbit over the
equatorial launch center. That concentrator focuses sunlight to a
small spot of high efficiency photocell material quite different than
the material on the disk. Here DC electricity generated by the PV
array on the satellite is converted to energetic electrons used to
power a free-electron laser.

In this way a 4 giga-watt laser beam is formed and beamed to a control
window which holographically beams the energy accurately great
distances. This holographically active material forms a thin film
window of non-linear material 30 miles in diameter. The mean in this
way may form a concentrated disk of laser energy 33 feet in diameter
up to 240,000 miles away - the surface of the moon - or form a spot
only 4 feet in diameter 28,000 miles away - the surface of Earth.

All the films are lightweight enough to mass less than a few hundred
tons and are placed on orbit by conventional heavy lift chemical
rocket based on vehicles adapted from Space Shuttle External tank
hardware and TRW heavy lift hydrogen engines as well as massive arrays
of MEMs based hydrogen/oxygen rockets plated onto the base of the
reusable tanks. While a more conventional return to the moon will be
mounted using this launcher, adapting it to launch significant power
satellite capacity pays economic dividends. Once in place, far more
payload may be sent to the moon with laser powered vehicles than
chemical rocket powered vehicles, though both will be used for a long
time.

The relation between beam size spot size and window size is given
here;

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~scdiroff...Criterion.html

The nonlinear optical material operates as described in this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QAUkt2VPHI

using a process called four wave mixing.

The disk shaped vehicle takes off with low exhaust speeds, using
moderate powers from the power satellite overhead at lift off and
casting surrounding air behind it at high speed to accelerate upward.
As the ship gains altitude it builds speed while air density falls.
Power levels increase and so do exhaust speeds while air pressure
builds ahead of the vehicle. The vehicle achieves low earth orbit
using only atmospheric gases and solar energy.

The vehicle accelerates at 4 gees along a 1,000 mile long corridor.
Once on its initial orbit the ship's apogee is over 180 miles, while
its perigee is only 50 miles. When it intersects the atmosphere
again, 98 minutes after launch, laser energy is beamed to the ship
again from geosynch orbit, accelerating the vehicle along 450 miles.
When it leaves the atmosphere again its apogee is now 185,000 miles, a
point where Moon gravity dominates. Throughout all of this, none of
the stored hydrogen on board was used to produce thrust. That will be
used later.

During transit the photovoltaic system produces sufficient energy to
power all life support systems without use of the large solar pumped
laser used to launch the vehicle. Since less than 15 minutes of beam
time was used to send the vehicle on its journey, the large laser
power system is available to launch other vehicles, or to beam power
to commercial buyers across the face of the Earth visible to the
satellite to earn added revenue and pay for the system.

115 hours after launch, the moon ship is falling toward the moon with
a speed of over 5,200 miles per hour. The great optical system in
geosynchronous orbit is now oriented toward the moon, or rather, two
control windows surround the solar pumped laser maintaining visual
contact with both Earth and Moon and energy is beamed precisely to the
little moon ship using holograhic means already described.

This time, the stored hydrogen on board is flashed into plasma and
ejected at 25,000 miles per hour from the ship to produce thrust
sufficient to generate one gee on board. In this way, the ship comes
to a rest on the lunar surface using only 2.7 tons of the liquid
hydrogen stored on board. The 30 passengers and crew come to rest on
the lunar surface.

When departing the moon the ship uses laser energy and stored hydrogen
again, to rise above the lunar surface and accelerate to over 5,200
miles per hour - heading back to Earth. This requires less than five
minutes of beam time, and the vehicle cruises another 115 hours to
arrive at Earth. Once there, the ship again skips over the atmosphere
of Earth while the orbiting laser beam assists in slowing the vehicle
using nothing but air and sunlight. This time, the system that
coordinates the plasma to produce thrust, is used to execute a
controlled deceleration bringing the vehicle into low-earth orbit.
Another 98 minutes, and the vehicle executes another controlled
braking maneuver, to come to a gentle landing at the launch center
where the 30 passengers and crew depart following their journey.

A total beam time of less than 45 minutes was used to dispatch and
retrieve the vehicle from the moon. Over the course of the trip over
300 vehicles carrying over 10,000 people may be supported by the
orbiting laser system.

By multiplexing the holographic window with up to 100 solar pumped
lasers, the number of vehicles can be increased to 1 million people
every week!

The moonship itself is rather simple, once certain parts are
engineered. Its mass production is not beyond possibility. At $10
million per ton, each vehicle costs $28 million. 1,000 vehicles cost
$28 billion. Less than the cost of NASA's return to the moon. At 30
people per vehicle a 30,000 people per week are transported to and
from the moon. Another $12 billion pays for the 10 power satellite
array, and the fleet of chemical rockets to launch the first portions
of it, along with the laser powered space freighter to expand it.
That freighter also operates to send large payloads to the moon to
build a lunar city.

Over a 20 year period 30 million trips to the moon can take place with
this setup. At a cost of $60 billion this is only $2,000 per trip.
At a cost of 6.5% interest over this period, $3,500 per trip! There
are 10 million millionaires in the world, and 300 million people worth
$100,000 or more. More than enough to support this level of activity,
and this level of cost.

Added revenue, or rather, principal revenues, are earned by powering
industry on Earth since over $4 trillion is spent every year by
Earthlings to power their $70 trillion per year industry.

The lunar cities, as well as cities across the face of Earth, are
powered by the same orbiting power system that powers the system
transport described here.

Thin film systems may also double as solar sails. In this way, power
satellites are dispatched across the solar system to Mars and other
planets using solar sailing techniques by manipulating the thin film
optics with laser assist.

Once power satellites are orbiting Mars, vehicles are dispatched along
high speed orbits to the planet throughout most of the synodic period
between Earth and Mars, allowing hundreds of thousands of people per
year to travel to the red planet and return with very little increase
in total system cost. The same network that powers Earth industry,
also powers Lunar industry. The same technology orbiting Earth once
placed in orbit around Mars powers human industry on the red planet as
well, along with interplanetary, and planetary transportation.

The 33 foot disks adapted to interplanetary travel, carry only 10
people at a time. The tiny ships are capable of keeping the smaller
number of people alive for months if needed. So, the tiny vehicles
have the 'legs' to span interplanetary distances at relatively high
speed compared to traditional low-energy orbits.

Solar sailing techniques are used to move heavy payloads more slowly
to support industrial expansion and expansion of living space on Mars
and the other planets.

When used with Mars atmosphere and solar energy, the hydrogen
propellant is more of a backup and navigational correction during the
interplanetary voyage since it is not strictly needed to land and
return from Mars.

Venus too has an atmosphere, and despite the high escape velocity of
that world, this vehicle is easily adapted to operate around Venus.
The problem here is the high pressures and temperatures on the planet,
making it unsuitable for life. Pressure and temperature high in the
Venusian atmosphere however are low enough to allow the possibility
of floating cities - large geodesic domes filled with nitrogen and
oxygen which float in the largely carbon dioxide atmosphere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floatin...ction%29#Venus

By directing 5% of the world's $4 trillion spent on energy each year
to space expansion, $200 billion is spent, to improve the core
technology once in place.

Here, large geodesic domes are launched from Earth and automatically
navigated to Venus using solar sails. They are then de-orbited into
the habitable zone of Venus' atmosphere. Laser propelled disks
maintain regular contact with the new cities, supporting their growing
population.

In this way, this rather simple set of innovations involving orbiting
solar power plants, thin film engineering, as well as laser pumped
photovoltaics and plasma rockets on a MEMs scale

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzXwctPXT4c

allow the early colonization of the Moon, Mars, Earth orbit, and
Venus.

Moving solar power satellite technology into an orbit inside the orbit
of Mercury, and adapting the technology to very high levels, some
2,500x the intensity found at Earth, lowers the cost of solar laser
energy by a large factor. Using the large scale optics developed for
the moon ship to beam that intense laser energy across the solar
system and beyond, permits an increase in the range and speed of
vehicles while increasing the mass flow rate out of and in to the
Earth.

Solar laser powered magnetic launchers built on the surface of Ceres
and other small bodies in the asteroid belt and beyond, bring a steady
stream of raw material to Earth Orbit, Mars Orbit, Lunar Orbit and
Venus Orbit. There orbiting remotely controlled and automated
factories, solar powered, process the stream of rich raw materials
into an ever expanding list of goods and products that are distributed
by solar powered MEMS rockets and solar powered rail guns, to anyone
anywhere in 'human space'.

At this point there are few if any limits to growth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxV2FCUESh0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzG4PEureFg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcbXSONtBdY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E2586kx_Uc

Ultimately, the technology may be used to propel laser light sails
beyond the solar system to nearby stars where the laser/PV/plasma
technology described here is used to navigate the planetary systems of
those stars.

Neptune has a surface gravity of 0.86 gees and a sizeable atmosphere
that is 1 atm pressure near its visible 'surface' and its 100K
there.

So, a 'hot air' Cloud Nine type city is possible there. Transport
would occur by laser powered rocket described earlier, with laser beam
originating inside the orbit of Mercury and beamed with large
coordinated lenses to the planet. This technique would be an
intermediate step between exploration and development of the inner
solar system and exploration and development of nearby stars.

Uranus has a surface gravity of 1.14 gees and also a sizeable
atmosphere. It has a region where it has 1 atm and is very cold. So,
despite the difference in density between Nitrogen (28 amu/molecule)
and Oxygen (32 amu/molecule) and that of hydrogen (2 amu/molecule) and
helium (4 amu/molecule) the difference between 100K and 300K is
sufficient, especially if the bulk of the floating city is filled with
high temperature hydrogen - with only a low dome over the Earth normal
atmosphere at the base of the sphere - it will float.

Of course a reliable laser powered plasma rocket array - mems based -
would augment a bouyant system or perhaps displace it!

The interesting thing is that a laser pumped plasma rocket that uses
external gases for propulsion once developed to a high level are
ideally suited to operate around any planet or moon that has a
sensible atmosphere. With very high exhaust speeds and unlimited
working fluid, and unlimited energy, orbital and escape velocities
don't really matter.

Solar System bodies accessed via atmosphere generated thrust using
laser plasma rockets

Venus 0.91 gee - floating city
Earth 1.00 gee - surface & floating cities
Mars 0.38 gee - surface cities
Jupiter 2.53 gee - automated floating factories
Saturn 1.07 gee - floating city
Uranus 1.14 gee - floating city
Neptune 0.86 gee - floating city
Titan 0.14 gee - floating & surface cities

Access via stored propellant generated thrust using laser plasma
rockets
(representative - not complete)

Mercury 0.38 gee - shielded surface city
Luna 0.17 gee - surface city
Pluto 0.07 gee - surface city
Ceres 0.03 gee - surface city

raw materials may be launched using laser powered rail gun or variant
- from any airless dwarf body and collected by atmospheric braking by
a planet or moon possessing a sensible atmosphere.

William Mook wrote:

From: William Mook

mok*medical*? Another business venture?

Jim Davis

On Nov 30, 7:15*pm, Jim Davis wrote:
William Mook wrote:
From: William Mook

mok*medical*? Another business venture?

Jim Davis

Improved Ablation Technique
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVxduLsx4ZU

An application of some of the skills I acquired in building arrays of
solar concentrators out of plastics and collecting the electrical
energy. Excepting in this case, electrical energy is generating heat
at controlled points.

Improved Solar Collector Technique
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkwgUx_u8YU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkX_n...x=0&playnext=1

On Dec 1, 9:38*am, William Mook wrote:
On Nov 30, 7:15*pm, Jim Davis wrote:

William Mook wrote:
From: William Mook

mok*medical*? Another business venture?

Jim Davis

Improved Ablation Techniquehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVxduLsx4ZU

An application of some of the skills I acquired in building arrays of
solar concentrators out of plastics and collecting the electrical
energy. *Excepting in this case, electrical energy is generating heat
at controlled points.

Improved Solar Collector Techniquehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkwgUx_u8YUhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkX_nvrPt1Y&feature=PlayList&p=86DF54D...

http://www.scribd.com/mokenergy
http://www.scribd.com/doc/20019383/mokenergy

While we develop capabilities such as these, sending unpiloted probes
to fly-by nearby stars at 30% light speed is also done. Expansion of
this system allows for slowing down payloads at the target stars. The
solar pumped laser systems are sent first - pumped by the nearby
target star. In this way a steady stream of materiel and people can
be exchanged between sol and nearby stars in a few decades.