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Laser Launch into Orbit
A blog dedicated to helping Science Fiction authors create and discuss worlds where a realistic setting can still serve the fiction.
You'd also need to build ground facilities such as custom power storage, a miniature electrical grid, a large laser focusing array and so on before the first rocket is even launched... this is a level of up-front investment that may be difficult to find people or organizations willing to pay for. Tens of thousands of Kelvin are possible, which is hotter than the surface of the sun.Water, ethanol and hexane struck by 8GW/m^2 pulses.Ablative material heated by a two-stage pulse can deliver performance of up to 5000s Isp or more.This allows for very small rockets that efficiently reach orbit riding on a single stack of metal disks. As shown in the optimistic worked example, based entirely on existing technology and verified experiments, the size of rockets can be drastically reduced and the cost of reaching space becomes nearly trivial.
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