The Interplanetary Crossbow: Technology and Architecture Description for an Interplanetary Laser-Sail System for the Use of small Payloads.
- Paper number
IAC-18,C4,6,10,x43104
- Author
Mr. Kelvin Long, United Kingdom, Initiative for Interstellar Studies
- Year
2018
- Abstract
Laser sail propulsion offers one of near term access to deep space exploration that may even go beyond the planets. The Breakthrough Initiatives Project Starshot (50 GW, 20\%c, ~1 gram) and also the I4IS Andromeda Probe (1 GW, 10\%c, 10s grams) have been studying such concepts for interstellar application for possible launch later this century. However, nearer term there is the prospects of a human colony on the Moon or Mars, and technological roadmaps are already under way by companies such as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. To meet what is perceived as a near-future need, we explore the concept for a MW-GW power beaming system that positions a single converging lens in Earth orbit and an identical one in orbit around another planet, such as in Mars orbit. Both would then be used for the sending of small mass (~grams to kg) payloads at high speeds (100s to 1,000s km/s) with sure transit times (~hours to days) between planets. Such a system would provide for fast delivery of urgently needed supplies for the Earth to Mars route (such as medicines, microelectronic components, plant seeds) or for return of materials for the Mars to Earth route (such as surface sample returns, microorganism samples for further analysis). The project builds on the studies already performed but applies them to the construction of this interplanetary Crossbow delivery architecture.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)