SBIR-STTR Award

Individual ions may be accelerated easily to velocities of hundreds of kilometers per second by virtue of their high charge-to-mass ratio. If it were possible to accelerate a beam of ions to such velocities and then to neutralize and coalesce such hypervelocity ions into massive projectiles, it would constitute a breakthrough in the creation of hypervelocity projectiles. A beam of massive particles has significant advantages over an ion or netural beam. The primary one is that the formation of a particle from the beam of ions in effect reduces the beam temperature to very low levels and maintains its focus over great distances and long times. The feasibility is being assessed of generating hypervelocity projectiles from coalesced ion beams. Estimates are being provided of the characteristics of a prototype weapons system based on this concept and of a proposed experimental program to be carried out in later phases. An experimental program is being designed to provide data to confirm or disprove the feasibility assessment. Success in this activity would open up a new field of scientific investigation on particle Interactions at high energy and in hypervelocity impact. Applications to fusion power generation and semiconductor fabrication are possible.