OVERCOMING THE SPECIFIC POWER LIMITATIONS OF NUCLEAR ELECTRIC PROPULSION BY LASER RADIATORS

It is shown that the specific power of nuclear electric propulsion can be greatly increased by replacing black body radiators with laser rad iators. In black body radiators the atomic oscillators have a random p hase with the emission rate for black body radiators proportional to t he sum of the squared amplitudes. In laser radiators the oscillators a re all in phase with the emission rate proportional to the squared sum of the amplitudes, which is the reason for the much larger emission r ate of laser radiators. In a laser radiator the low entropy low temper ature laser beam removes the waste heat by resonance absorption and is otropic reemission of the laser radiation into space. (C) 1998 Elsevie r Science Ltd. All rights reserved.