@S1-A.ARPA,@MIT-MC.ARPA:DIETZ@RUTGERS.ARPA (06/22/85)
From: DIETZ@RUTGERS.ARPA I just sent a message on this subject to ARMS-D; it has applications to civilian space, too, so I'd thought I'd reiterate here. The idea is to make a compact, high power space based laser using nuclear power. I don't want to use nuclear reactions to boil water to make electricity to drive a laser; that's horribly bulky and inefficient. Instead, mix U-235 hexafluoride gas with some lasing medium and let the fission fragments directly excite laser action. We can potentially discard waste heat at very high temperatures, allowing a very compact high power laser. Some applications: (1) we can beam power to spacecraft. (2) we can beam power to the moon. A good orbit to use for this application is a polar orbit aligned perpendicular to the earth-moon axis; the orbit can be made to precess with a period of 1 lunar month. (3) we can fly laser powered aircraft (over oceans!) (4) weather modification (5) pulsed UV lasers could be used to prospect on the moon from earth orbit (maybe on asteroids too). A pulsed laser would need a pulsed reactor; these beasts have been built on earth and have achieved very high instantaneous power levels (I'm not counting pulsed reactors that make mushroom clouds). This is potentially a near term technology, since nuclear power sources are so lightweight (and because SDI is getting billions of dollars). These lasers would also make, of course, frightening weapons. Combined with large telescopes in orbit they would allow the destruction of exposed personnel at any give point on the Earth's surface, in seconds. A 1 gigawatt laser could deliver ~100x solar intensity to an area 100 meters across. -------