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Recent years have seen spectacular progress in the development of innovative acceleration methods that are not based on traditional RF accelerating structures. These novel developments are at the interface of laser, plasma and accelerator…
The electric solar wind sail (E-sail) propellantless propulsion device uses long, charged metallic tethers to tap momentum from the solar wind to produce spacecraft propulsion. If flying through planetary or moon eclipse, the long E-sail…
The author applies, develops and researches mini-sized Micro- AB Thermonuclear Reactors for space propulsion and space power systems. These small engines directly convert the high speed charged particles produced in the thermonuclear…
Use of resonant light forces opens up a unique approach to high-volume sorting of microspherical resonators with much higher uniformity of resonances compared to that in coupled-cavity structures obtained by the best semiconductor…
In this chapter, we review some features of particle acceleration in astrophysical jets. We begin by describing four observational results relating to the topic, with particular emphasis on jets in active galactic nuclei and parallels…
Icy moons with subsurface oceans of liquid water rank among the most promising astrobiological targets in our Solar System. In this work, we assess the feasibility of deploying laser sail technology in precursor life-detection missions. We…
We discuss two geosynchronous gravitational wave mission concepts, which we generically name gLISA. One relies on the science instrument hosting program onboard geostationary commercial satellites, while the other takes advantage of recent…
A new regime is described for Radiation Pressure Acceleration of a thin foil by an intense laser beam of above 10^20 W/cm^2. Highly monoenergetic proton beams extending to GeV energies can be produced with very high efficiency using…
A review is presented of the scientific benefits of rapid (v >= 0.1c) interstellar spaceflight. Significant benefits are identified in the fields of interstellar medium studies, stellar astrophysics, planetary science and astrobiology. In…
The simple physics of microlensing provides a well-understood tool with which to probe the atmospheres of distant stars in the Galaxy and Local Group with high magnification and resolution. Recent results in measuring stellar surface…
Using optical dipole forces we have realized controlled transport of a single or any desired small number of neutral atoms over a distance of a centimeter with sub-micrometer precision. A standing wave dipole trap is loaded with a…
The generation of optical pulses at ultra low bias level, thus low energy cost, is explored in a commercial microcavity semiconductor laser in view of testing the principle of energy efficient information encoding in potential integrated…
Lightsails are a promising spacecraft concept that can reach relativistic speeds via propulsion by laser light, allowing travel to nearby stars within a human lifetime. The success of a lightsail mission requires that any motion in the…
It has been proposed that blazar jets are structured, with a fast spine surrounded by a slower sheath or layer. This structured jet model explains some properties of their emission and morphology. Because of their relative motion, the…
A short overview of laser-plasma acceleration of ions is presented. The focus is on some recent experimental results and related theoretical work on advanced regimes. These latter include in particular target normal sheath acceleration…
The irradiation with fast ions with kinetic energies of > 10 MeV leads to the deposition of a high amount of energy along their trajectory (up to several ten keV/nm). The energy is mainly transferred to the electronic subsystem and induces…
The electric solar wind sail (E-sail) is a way to propel a spacecraft by using the natural solar wind as a thrust source. The problem of secular spinrate change was identified earlier which is due to the orbital Coriolis effect and tends to…
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are a highly promising technology for ocean exploration and diverse offshore operations, yet their practical deployment is constrained by energy efficiency and endurance. To address this, we propose…
We discuss a possibility to survey many Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO) with a single launch using a few smallscale spacecraft, each equipped with solar sails, which could be unfurled from a single interplanetary bus at the perihelion of that…
NASA has been considering a solar sail that would accelerate a craft to a high velocity (~ 14 AU/yr) by the time it reached 5 AU. Then the sail would be dropped and the craft would coast alone to deep space. We propose that the sail be…