大气吸气模式激光推进的实验研究

激光推进是一种新概念推进技术,在未来航天事业中将有重要的应用前景。利用高重复频率高功率TEA-CO₂脉冲激光器进行了抛物形飞行器的水平和垂直激光推进实验,实现了大气模式的激光垂直推进,飞行高度超过了1m。实验测定了多种工作状况下光脉冲能量转变为飞行器动量的推进效能,测得的光能－冲量耦合系数C_m达到27.7dyne·s/J,与国外文献报道相当。

Experimental Investigation on Air-Breathing Mode of Laser Propulsion

The recent progress in the authors experimental investigation on air-breathing mode of laser propulsion are reported. With a high power TEA-CO₂ pulsed laser, both horizontal and vertical propulsion experiments are conducted. The energy of each pulse is about 18.58J. The frequency can be adjusted from 20 to 180Hz. Several parabolic reflectors of aluminum alloy with different focuses f are used in the experiments. A high speed CCD camera is applied to record the movement variables of the reflectors. For single pulse experiments, the measured momentum coupling coefficients C_m are 27.7dyne·s/J for f=10mm and 22.82dyne·s/J for f=15mm. For multi-pulse experiments (frequency 50Hz, work time 0.5s), the horizontal propulsion distance is greater than 1.5m, and the vertical propulsion height exceeds 1m.