Next Big Future:
Neutral beam accelerator technology was developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory. A prototype neutral hydrogen beam weapon was launched aboard a suborbital sounding rocket from White Sands Missile Range in July 1989 as part of the Beam Experiments Aboard Rocket (BEAR) project. It reached a maximum altitude of 124 miles, and successfully operated in space for 4 minutes before returning to earth intact.
The MDA is seeking lightweight, compact, energy efficient, radiation hardened, components significantly more advanced than technologies demonstrated in the BEAM Experiment Aboard Rocket (BEAR) system flown in 1989 to enable development of NPB system(s) capable of operating in sub-orbital (pop-up) or orbital (space based) mode.
A conceptual NPB system would generate, accelerate, focus, and direct a stream of highly energetic electrically-neutral atomic particles, traveling at near the speed of light, unperturbed by the earth’s magnetic field, at exo-atmospheric targets. Particle interactions with target matter can cause damage and generate measurable emissions allowing target characterization.
