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Electromagnetic catapult for launching material into orbit.

Ever since The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, I've believed that a mag-lev catapult would be the ideal way to get things into orbit. The problem is that to do it with reasonably low g-forces, the track would have to be really long.

The solution: insanely high g-forces, going in a circle.

popsic.com:

...a high-speed accelerator that whips a projectile as heavy as 220 pounds around a circular 1.5-mile-radius vacuum tunnel. Powerful electromagnetic motors inside the tunnel will accelerate the unit, strapped to a magnetic sled, in circles until it reaches a velocity of six miles per second and then will eject the projectile from a launch ramp into space.

21 Dec 2006 08:00 AM | Send comments to comments@techpopuli.net