Supersonic laser propulsion is aimed to accelerate supersonic gas flows in a laser-propulsion engine. The problem is that some gas-plasma-dynamic processes complicate the overall nature of a thrust production in a supersonic regime. To produce supersonic laser propulsion, original technique based on the interaction of laser-ablated jet with supersonic gas flow in a nozzle is proposed. It is shown that such parameters of the vapor jet as gas-plasma pressure and temperature in the ablation vapor as well as the mass consumption rate of the ablated propellant are important ones in this case. The results of numerical simulations of the supersonic laser propulsion are presented for two types of a nozzle configuration. The feasibility of momentum coupling coefficient Cm to be of 10−3 N/W is shown.


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