Date:

Can High-Power Microwaves Reduce the Launch Cost of Space-Bound Rockets?

Tsukuba, Japan – Governments throughout the world use rockets to launch satellites and people into orbit.

This currently requires a lot of high-energy fuel, which is 95% of total rocket mass. Because the launch cost of a rocket can reach 10 billion yen, launching a 1-gram payload is said to be the same as buying 1 gram of gold. Minimizing the total cost of launching rockets would maximize the scientific payloads and increase the feasibility of space exploration.

- Advertisement -

In a study published in the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, researchers from the University of Tsukuba have helped solve important wireless power transmission and other efficiency issues that must be overcome to use high-powered microwaves to supplement—or nearly replace—chemical fuel for rocket launches. Their study will help researchers in this line of work properly focus their efforts.

Researchers commonly believe that a rocket requires a megawatt of beam-powered propulsion—that’s approximately the power output of 10 automobiles—per kilogram of payload to reach a minimal orbit. Whether microwave transmission is sufficiently efficient for real-world applications is an open question.

Microwave beams have been transmitted by using a ground antenna that is the same size as a rocket antenna. “However, practical applications will require a large ground-based transmitter and a small receiver on the rocket, and thus variable-focus transmission,” explains Assistant Professor Kohei Shimamura, lead author of the study. “We wanted to not only demonstrate this approach, but also quantify its efficiency.”

In their comprehensive study, the researchers calculated the efficiencies, at short distances, of a ground-based microwave generator (51%), wireless power supply that sends the microwaves to the rocket propulsion system (14%), receiving antenna on the rocket (34%), and propulsion device that uses the microwave energy to heat the rocket propellant (6%). “Researchers can now put numbers on how efficient variable-focus transmission is at present,” says Associate Professor Tsuyoshi Kariya, the other main author of the study.

- Advertisement -

Future research will need to study and improve efficiencies at long distances. In the words of Associate Professor Shimamura: “This is a difficult challenge, but an important next step in advancing microwave technology to practical use in rocket launches.”

Rockets are essential technology, but their launching cost is a major disadvantage for scientific missions. With future research, high-power microwaves may one day be a low-cost method of rocket propulsion.

University of Tsukuba

Header Image – Public Domain

- Advertisement -

Stay Updated: Follow us on iOS, Android, Google News, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, TikTok, LinkedIn, and our newsletter

spot_img
Mark Milligan
Mark Milligan
Mark Milligan is multi-award-winning journalist and the Managing Editor at HeritageDaily. His background is in archaeology and computer science, having written over 8,000 articles across several online publications. Mark is a member of the Association of British Science Writers (ABSW), the World Federation of Science Journalists, and in 2023 was the recipient of the British Citizen Award for Education, the BCA Medal of Honour, and the UK Prime Minister's Points of Light Award.
spot_img
spot_img
spot_img

Mobile Application

spot_img

Related Articles

Archaeologists discover burials from the Iron Age and Viking Era

Archaeologists from the State Historical Museums and Arkeologerna recently completed an investigation of a significant burial site in Linköping, Sweden.

Hidden fortune discovered in Czech countryside

A 7-kilogram treasure hoard has been discovered by hikers on Zvičina Hill, located in Třebihošť-Mostek, Czechia.

Pre-war Jewish district uncovered in Lublin

Archaeologists from the Lublin Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments have uncovered traces of Lublin’s pre-war Jewish district during construction works at Zamkowa and Podwale streets.

Ornately decorated sarcophagus unearthed in “City of Gladiators”

Excavations in Stratonikeia, located in the Yatağan district of Muğla in southwestern Türkiye, have unearthed a 2,000-year-old sarcophagus from the Roman Imperial Age.

The mystery of a 1940’s Ford Woody discovered on USS Yorktown shipwreck

During a recent expedition aboard NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer for the Papahānaumokuākea ROV and Mapping project, NOAA Ocean Exploration and its partners discovered a 1940s Ford Woody on the wreck of the USS Yorktown.

Roman phallus found at frontier fortress

Excavations at Vindolanda near Hadrian’s Wall have unearthed a miniature phallus pendant.

Ancient underground chamber discovery in Cnoc Ard

A construction project in Cnoc Ard (Knockaird) on the Isle of Lewis has revealed a stone-built underground chamber, later identified by archaeologists as a Late Iron Age souterrain.

Caral burial unearthed at Áspero: Elite woman found remarkably preserved

Archaeologists from the Caral Archaeological Zone (ZAC), led by Dr. Ruth Shady Solís from the Ministry of Culture, have discovered a well-preserved burial at the Áspero archaeological site in Barranca Province, Peru.