1 MW burst power (was Re: Laser as Reactionless Propulsion)

Michael M. Butler (butler@comp-lib.org)
Thu, 22 Apr 1999 12:16:36 -0700

If I had to guess, I'd guess it's magnetohydrodynamics-based. I've seen MHD designs that used jet turbine engines and rocket motors; it stands to reason that you could get a pretty good pulse out of something that goes boom, if it were properly designed.

Off the top of my head: One model I envision has a (disposable) stator arranged as if you'd serpentined the wire up and down the staves of a fat wooden barrel. The stator could expand more or less with the explosion's wave front, generating current until the wires snapped.

You'd still need a stable magnetic field; not sure how to get that without a fixed (strong/expensive) container. Lots of supermagnets along for the shockwave ride? Another disposable coil to produce the field? Current for the field from voltage off a space tether?

MMB

>>b) There is a new power source that one of the Russian Institutes just
>>sold to the US military which uses a small charge of conventional
>>explosives to generate 1 megawatt for a tiny fraction of a second. They
>>are evaluating it now for space defense weapons use. Don't know the
>>technology behind it.
>>
>>Spike? Any ideas?
>
>Is it Cold Fusion?
>>
>>Mike Lorrey
>>
>>
>Ra
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