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Currently, there is a problem of making engines for the exploration of near space, and one of the solutions to this problem is the use of a laser rocket engine. This type of engine has a number of advantages and, as calculations have shown, it is economically profitable during active operation, which is very important for space systems. The principle of operation of a laser rocket engine allows it to be used not only as a power plant and a system for launching spacecraft, but also as a system for the destruction of space debris, the problem of which is becoming more and more urgent every day. The paper shows the results of a review of domestic and foreign works on the history of creation and the concept of application of currently existing samples of laser rocket engines, on experimental data obtained by measuring the specific impulse and thrust, measurement methods, and describes the principle of operation and basic physical processes occurring in laser rocket engines

In this work we investigated the velocity of propagation of a shock wave after optical breakdown on the surface, depending on various initial pressure distributions which are simulated in Ansys Fluent. When setting of the shock wave energy of the order of 10 … 20% of the laser pulse energy, results are in satisfactory agreement with experiments. An analysis of the experimental data showed an effect when the velocities of shock waves propagation are comparable but energies of laser pulses differ by two orders of magnitude between each other, which leads to significant deviations from the theory of a point explosion.

This paper substantiates the need to study processes during nanosecond optical breakdown inside a cylindrical channel, and gives an analogy between L. Sedov’s theory of point explosion and an optical breakdown. A variant of the evolution of a shock wave inside a cylindrical channel is proposed. Based on the solution of the problem of a point explosion with backpressure, a preliminary estimate of the gas pressure and velocity behind the shock front was obtained to set the initial conditions in Ansys Fluent. As a result of numerical simulation, the characteristics of the shock wave were calculated, and the distributions of the velocity, density and pressure of the gas behind the shock front were obtained. According to comparison of the experiments and results of numerical simulation, an estimate of the shock wave energy is given, which is from 8 to 16% of the energy of a nanosecond laser pulse. The results of the proposed method of numerical calculation are consistent with the experimental data for measuring the time of the shock wave exits from the channel and the target momentum at atmospheric pressure.

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