Re: Laser as Reactionless Propulsion

Michael M. Butler (butler@comp-lib.org)
Fri, 23 Apr 1999 14:08:01 -0700

At 21:36 99.04.22 -0700, you wrote:
>Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
>
>> ...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?
>
>None that I am willing to talk about, even if I did know, which I
>am not claiming to. {8^D Gotta hand it to those commies, they are
>pretty clever with their shape charges, are they not? spike

Yep, and a shaped charge would be another reasonable way to rig an MHD burst generator. More like a solid rocket design, less like a bomb. I forgot about the metal needed in the exhaust. Thanks for reminding me. :)

"I was just trying to _jumpstart_ the tank!" --Some RPG operator.

MMB