"Teleporters" Push Laser Spacecraft

It just never fails. A few times a year, somebody puts out a press release claiming some miraculous breakthrough in propulsion that will bring us earthlings one step closer to the stars. As a closeted Star Trek fan, I can't resist checking these claims out -- even though I'm way skeptical.

The latest in this illustrious line of would-be starship inventors is Dr. Young Bae of the Bae Institute, which put out this press release on an alleged breakthrough in laser-powered propulsion:

Since Einstein, scientists have dreamed of Laser light powered rockets streaking through space at speeds approaching the speed of light. This vision came a step closer to reality on December 21, 2006, when Dr. Young Bae of the Bae Institute successfully demonstrated the world's first Photonic Laser Thruster (PLT). Repeated experiments since then have reconfirmed results.

Okay, that doesn't sound too much out of the ordinary, despite the gratuitous reference to Albert Einstein. But then we get to the next paragraph, which includes endorsement from an actual Air Force official.

Dr. Franklin Mead, Senior Aerospace Engineer, and leading rocket scientist in laser and advanced propulsion at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) remarked, "I attended Dr. Bae's presentation about his PLT demonstration and measurement of photon thrust here at AFRL. It was pretty incredible stuff and to my knowledge, I don't think anyone has done this before. It has generated a lot of interest around here.

For those of you not familiar with Franklin Mead, of the Air Force Research Laboratory, let me refresh your memory. Mead's been around the "breakthrough propulsion" crowd for years, and even holds his own patent for a zero point energy invention. He was also the deep-thinking government official who funded the now infamous Air Force teleportation study (you can see the full PDF of the study here). Yep, that's right, this was the study that looked at, among other methods, ways to transport objects through walls using psychic powers. That, too, could be a breakthrough for space travel, I suppose.

To be fair, Bae's plans for laser-powered propulsion appear to have a better grounding in reality than mental teleportation, although one expert I asked about the press release said the idea made him giggle. Another said, "This sounds a bit nuts, but it's hard to tell from what's written." Not a good sign.

Since I really do subscribe to the "you just never know" school of thought, I decided to farm out this press release to a few more of my favorite defense technology experts. Their reactions were, well, not as enthusiastic as that of the Air Force's Franklin Mead.

Phil Coyle of the Center for Defense Information (and the Pentagon's former top technology tester) explains the concept this way:

The way it works is the laser heats up a propellant layer at the bottom of the space craft which pushes the space craft upwards, not unlike the way a rocket propels itself upward by expelling mass out the back end. In some lab-scale tests the propellant has been the air captured at the base of the space craft which the laser heats up so hot that it "explodes" propelling the craft upwards. Or the propellant can be a thin layer of rocket propellant dust which the laser heats up and
"ignites." With very tiny space craft ("Lightcraft") smaller than a child's paper airplane weighing an ounce or so, the weight of a first class letter, I think the world record is something like 150 feet.

Okay, that sounds all well and good. So is this going to get us to the stars? Not according to Coyle:

No, it's not a breakthrough. With various techniques and wrinkles, scientists have been trying for decades. [I wrote a story for the Times a few years back about about some laser-powered tinkerers at NASA -- nms] As
I'm sure you can imagine, limitations arise because the laser isn't powerful enough, the Lightcraft is too small to be useful, the propellant runs out before the Lightcraft gets very far, if you add more propellant the exhaust gets in the way of the laser, etc.

It's sort of like trying to blow a paper airplane across the room with you own breath. You can give it a push with your first puff, but then the paper airplane is too far away and you can't blow enough air to keep it going.

At that rate, teleportation starts looking a bit more attractive.

But for those who aren't dissuaded by experts, the Bae Institute awaits. The point of the press release states that the institute, which has received some NASA funding, is "actively seeking further funding for scaling up and constructing space flight ready PLT systems."

-- Sharon Weinberger