IPFS News Link • Military
New research for space based Neutral Particle Beam (NPB) system
• https://www.nextbigfuture.com by Brian WangNeutral 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.