Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
 |
Comments on Laser Aircraft Refueling: Power Transfer Beams?
Patent application provides hope that there will be air travel after the age of oil. (Read
the complete story)
| "I prefer laser guided popcorn popping like in Real Genius. :)" (Brandon 12/9/2008 8:32:30 AM) |
| "In "A Step Farther Out" by Jerry Pournelle, one chapter discusses something even better. It takes the concept that the Laser Launch system uses, (the one with the launch vehicles that look like little UFO's) but places it inside an "engine" with a transparent shell. When a laser (or Maser) is directed at the engine, it effectively turns it into a pulse-jet, using beamed power. The prototypes that were built only needed to carry fuel for take-off and landing, while using lasers from a ground base to provide power for flight in between. The design was originally for use with Solar Power Satelites, and their MASERs. Two small passenger planes could be powered by one SPS at the design sizes & power levels that were planned." (Ashley 12/9/2008 10:59:48 AM) |
| "Ashley - I also recall the laser cannon from Niven & Pournelle's 1974 novel The Mote in God's Eye." (Bill Christensen 12/9/2008 2:00:10 PM) |
| "Ashley - I think that was published in 1979; pretty good example. I also forgot to link to this article about the first flight of a laser powered airplane." (Bill Christensen 12/9/2008 8:05:02 PM) |
| "Ah. I read the 1981 version. (not much different, just a few extra bits and an extra foreword) Tho considering that the book was actually a collection of the transcripts of various lectures Dr. Pournelle had given, edited to fit in book form, that shouldn't matter much." (Ashley 12/10/2008 7:37:15 AM) |
Get more information on Laser Aircraft Refueling: Power Transfer Beams?
Leave a comment:
Please send your comments to @technovelgy and I'll post them. Thanks!
More Articles
Did Frank Herbert Predict E-Ink Displays?
'A broken circle with arrows pointing to a right-hand flow appeared in the chalf.'
Monolith One Giant Industrial Metal 3D-printer
'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.'
'Mooncrete' Lunar Regolith Concrete (LRC)
'And here they began to build...'
China's 'Magpie Drone' Ornithopter
'Midges have many capabilities. To the untrained eye, they look like sparrows.'
MAI-Voice-2 Microsoft Text-To-Speech
'I made disks of my own voice to the number of five hundred very carefully chosen words.'
Tumblin' Tumbleweed Rovers To Eplore Mars
'His sensors out and working, and the whirring of the tape that sucked up sight and sound and shape and smell and form...'
Tentacled Robot Captures Space Debris
Preventing annoying space debris build-up.
Prufrock-MB2 Ready In Nashville
'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
DIY Robotic Content Farming
'The chief wheeled to the master machine and pressed a button.'
Reflect Orbital Sunlight On Demand
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
The Amazing Lightfoot Electric Scooter With Solar Assist
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
Fully Electric, Fully Automated Vegetable‑growing Agribots
'...then back to their work, though little enough it was on these automatic cultivators.'
Vero Robotic Dog With Vacuum Cleaner Feet
'Out of warrens in the wall, tiny robot mice darted.'
AI Operates An Excavator
'So far as I could see, the thing was without a directing Martian at all.'
Boy Makes Biomimetic Turtle Robot
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
US Army IBEX Exoskeleton Walks Troops Out Of Danger
'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
Elon Musk Wants Data Centers In Space
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
Origin F1 Humanoid Robot's Facial Skin
'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.'
Grok And The City Fathers From 'Cities In Flight' By James Blish
'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
Why Not Move A Warehouse District?
'Did you never see a moving house before?'
