Experimental Study of the Momentum Coupling Coefficient with the Pulse Frequency and Ambient Pressure for Air-Breathing Laser Propulsion.

The air-breathing laser propulsion tests are conducted for parabolic models by using a high power TEA-CO2 pulsed laser. It is found the momentum coupling coefficient Cm varies with the pulse repeatable frequency and reaches the maximum near 50Hz. With a multi-use pendulum chamber, the change of Cm at different ambient pressure is measured. The experimental results show that the propulsion efficiency Cm does not decrease below the altitude of 10km, even increases a little bit. The calculated Cm fits the experimental result up to altitude 3km, then, they are separated. One possible reason is the temperature which is constant in the experiments. © 2006 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]