Conversion of Blast Wave to Impulse in a Pulsed-laser Thruster

Energy conversion efficiency in the Repetitive Pulse Laser Thrusters has been studied. Whole conversion processes are divided into two processes; Energy conversion from the laser energy to the blast wave energy and conversion from the blast wave to impulse. The fraction of laser energy that is converted into the blast wave energy was deduced to be 50% by visualizing the blast wave motion. A simple model has been proposed to estimate the impulse from the blast wave energy, and it has been validated by the experimental results.