Experimental Investigation on Air-Breathing Mode of Laser Propulsion

The recent progress in our experimental investigation on the air-breathing mode of laser propulsion has been reported. With a high power TEA-CO, pulsed Laser, both horizontal and vertical propulsion experiments were conducted. The energy of each pulse is 15-18J. The frequency can be adjusted from 20-180Hz. Several parabolic reflectors of aluminum alloy with different focus f were used in the experiments. A high speed CCD camera was applied to record movement variables of the reflectors. For single pulse experiments, the measured momentum coupling coefficient Q, is 27.7dyne.s/J for f=10mm, and 22.82dyne.s/J for f=15min. For multi-pulse experiments (frequency 50Hz, work time 0.5s), the horizontal propulsion distance was greater than 1.5m, and the vertical propulsion height exceeded 1.5m, but the average C-m is lower than that of single pulse experiments.