Driving Aircraft And Spaceships With Ground-Based Lasers

This is one of those very cool technologies that could -- perhaps -- change the very face of breaking the surly bonds.

Lasers.

It's a concept that seems to be gaining momentum. As ANN reported last week (ANN: "Build A Better Paper Airplane And What Do You Get?" -- 15 Sept. 03), the idea of propelling an aircraft or even a spaceship with lasers is starting to gain some respect in the scientific community. During the past week, it got even more respect.

Scientists at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center (CA), the Marshall Space Flight Center and the University of Alabama at Huntsville were able to use the power of light to propel a lightweight aircraft.

"We're using lasers to beam energy to fly an airplane. Instead of having power on board the airplane, the power is provided from the ground with the laser system," said David Bushman, a mission manager at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California.

The subject aircraft was relatively small. Its wingspan was only five feet. Thursday, a space worker dropped the R/C aircraft from a platform high above the floor at the testing facility. Another worker -- on the floor -- aimed an infrared beam director around, tracking the plane. That kept it within the sights of the laser.

It worked.

Sure, the payload was tiny and the aircraft only moved at about seven or eight miles an hour, but it worked.

"It's the culmination of several years of work and we're pretty excited," Bushman said.

"You don't need any fuel on the airplane. Which means as long you apply energy it will fly," NASA physicist Robert Burdine said.

The possibilities are pretty heady. Lasers, invisible on the ground, could be used to power unmanned surveillance aircraft over long missions, officials said. Energy could be beamed up to space tugs so they would never have to refuel. A Mars aerial rover could use laser power generated by satellite to scope out the red planet's dusty surface.

FMI: www.www.msfc.nasa.gov