A solar thermal rocket is a theoretical spacecraft propulsion system that would make use of solar power to directly heat reaction mass, and therefore would not require an electrical generator like most other forms of solar-powered propulsion do. The rocket would only have to carry the means of capturing solar energy, such as concentrators and mirrors. The heated propellant would be fed through a conventional rocket nozzle to produce thrust. Its engine thrust would be directly related to the surface area of the solar collector and to the local intensity of the solar radiation.
In the shorter term, solar thermal propulsion has been proposed both for longer-life, lower-cost and more-flexible cryogenic upper stage launch vehicles and for on-orbit propellant depots. Solar thermal propulsion is also a good candidate for use in reusable inter-orbital tugs, as it is a high-efficiency low-thrust system that can be refueled with relative ease.
Read more about Solar Thermal Rocket: Solar-thermal Design Concepts, Propellants, Solar-thermal For Ground Launch, Proposed Solar-thermal Space Systems
Famous quotes containing the words solar and/or rocket:
“Senta: These boats, sir, what are they for?
Hamar: They are solar boats for Pharaoh to use after his death. They’re the means by which Pharaoh will journey across the skies with the sun, with the god Horus. Each day they will sail from east to west, and each night Pharaoh will return to the east by the river which runs underneath the earth.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“Along a parabola life like a rocket flies,
Mainly in darkness, now and then on a rainbow.”
—Andrei Voznesensky (b. 1933)