LaserMotive is a U.S.

United State

United State may refer to:* Union of Russia and Belarus, sometimes called the United State * United States* United State of Electronica, the Seattle dance/rock band...

 engineering firm developing technologies for efficiently transmitting power via laser

Laser

A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...

s, a form of wireless energy transfer

Wireless energy transfer

Wireless energy transfer or wireless power is the transmission of electrical energy from a power source to an electrical load without artificial interconnecting conductors. Wireless transmission is useful in cases where interconnecting wires are inconvenient, hazardous, or impossible...

.

History

LaserMotive was founded in 2006 by physicists Tom Nugent

Tom Nugent (physicist)

Thomas J. Nugent, Jr. is an engineer and current President of LaserMotive, a laser power beaming and research company. He previously worked as a project scientist at Intellectual Ventures Labs, working on a variety of projects including the “Photonic Fence,” a system for shooting down mosquitoes...

 and Jordin Kare

Jordin Kare

Jordin Kare is a physicist and aerospace engineer known for his research on laser propulsion. In particular, he was responsible for Mockingbird, a conceptual design for an extremely small reusable launch vehicle, and was involved in the Clementine lunar mapping mission.Kare is also known as...

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Technology

The "system starts with a laser

Laser

A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...

 running from a power supply

Power supply

A power supply is a device that supplies electrical energy to one or more electric loads. The term is most commonly applied to devices that convert one form of electrical energy to another, though it may also refer to devices that convert another form of energy to electrical energy...

, with the laser light shaped

Laser science

Laser science or laser physics is a branch of optics that describes the theory and practice of lasers.Laser science is principally concerned with quantum electronics, laser construction, optical cavity design, the physics of producing a population inversion in laser media, and the temporal...

 by a set of optics

Optical cavity

An optical cavity or optical resonator is an arrangement of mirrors that forms a standing wave cavity resonator for light waves. Optical cavities are a major component of lasers, surrounding the gain medium and providing feedback of the laser light. They are also used in optical parametric...

 to define the beam size at its destination. This light

Luminous energy

In photometry, luminous energy is the perceived energy of light. This is sometimes also called the quantity of light.Luminous energy is not the same as the radiant energy, the corresponding objective physical quantity. This is because the human eye can only see light in the visible spectrum and has...

 then propagates

Wave propagation

Wave propagation is any of the ways in which waves travel.With respect to the direction of the oscillation relative to the propagation direction, we can distinguish between longitudinal wave and transverse waves....

 through air or the vacuum of space until it reaches the photovoltaic (PV) receiver. This array of PV cells then converts the light back into electricity."

Tether propulsion

The company's stated first goal was to win the Beam Power Challenge, part of the Space Elevator Games, to power a small climber up a vertical tether. They have partnered with Boeing

Boeing

The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...

, which provided them with test facilities, as well as specialized solar cells. In 2007, they failed to qualify for the Challenge due to difficulties meeting NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

's specifications.

At the 2009 Challenge, on November 6, 2009, LaserMotive successfully used lasers to drive a abbr=on 4.8 device up a abbr=on 900 cable suspended from a helicopter. Energy is transmitted to the climber using a high-power infrared beam. LaserMotive's entry, which was the only to top the cable, reached an average speed of 13 km/h (8.1 mph) and earned a $900,000 prize. This marked both a performance record, and the first award of a cash prize at the Challenge.

Aircraft propulsion

On October 28, 2010, Lasermotive set a flight endurance record at the Future of Flight Center

Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour

The Future of Flight Aviation Center is an aviation museum and education center located at the northwest corner of Paine Field in Mukilteo, Washington. It is the starting point for the Boeing Tour, a tour of a portion of Boeing's Everett, Washington production facility in which the models 747,...

 by powering a quadcopter UAV

Unmanned aerial vehicle

An unmanned aerial vehicle , also known as a unmanned aircraft system , remotely piloted aircraft or unmanned aircraft, is a machine which functions either by the remote control of a navigator or pilot or autonomously, that is, as a self-directing entity...

for more than 12 hours using laser propulsion.