I wonder though, what's stopping them from mounting a
laser at the bottom of the craft, and making it entirely self-propelled?

The power source for such a laser would probably be too heavy.

The purpose is to enable "remote power" - separating the energy storage mechanism from the device that is moving.

This (laser pulse) is also the proposed mechanism to power space elevators.

It's good to see someone is using the work that came from the "star wars" project, because as a missile defense system, it was a pretty damn sorry excuse and a large waste of money. The highest (unclassified) success rate was hitting only 85% of targets. That seems good at first, but when targets are ICBM's, that 15% that gets through from USSR would level every major american city. Epic Fail indeed.

>> ^ridesallyridenc:
The power source for such a laser would probably be too heavy.


There are ways around that, and battery technologies are improving all the time.

Even the microwave-beaming satellite they mention near the end can be used, beaming energy at solar panels mounted on top of the craft.

>> ^demon_ix:
>> ^ridesallyridenc:
The power source for such a laser would probably be too heavy.

There are ways around that, and battery technologies are improving all the time.
Even the microwave-beaming satellite they mention near the end can be used, beaming energy at solar panels mounted on top of the craft.



Eventually, yes. Currently, no.

Every pound you add to a spacecraft increases the amount of power needed to accelerate it. Trying to integrate an onboard power system for this would greatly increase the cost and greatly decrease the acceptable cargo weight.

It certainly won't be impossible with future tech, but the concept here is that the power source doesn't have to be onboard. Why spend extra money building power systems for multiple ships when you can build one launch pad to service less expensive ships? It wouldn't work for every application, but it would work very well for something like the space elevator or a common-use launch facility.

So it looks like they're 6 months from being commercially viable?