An electromagnetic first stage space cargo launcher
Abstract
The economical and technical feasibility of replacing the first stage chemical booster of the Scout launch system by an electromagnetic catapult energized by available line power and using a large inductor as the only energy storage device is discussed. It is proposed to install a 10-km long launcher up the west slope of a Sierra Nevada mountain which would be supplied with 400 kV dc from a powerline and cost about 300 million dollars. The purposed hybrid launch system would reduce the launch mass from 45,000 to 15,000 kg and the launch cost from 50 to about 3 million dollars including amortization of the installation. The overall cost per pound of payload would be reduced from 7,000 to 1,400 dollars.
- Publication:
-
Space manufacturing 4
- Pub Date:
- 1981
- Bibcode:
- 1981spma.proc..231K
- Keywords:
-
- Electromagnetic Acceleration;
- Hybrid Propulsion;
- Payloads;
- Rocket Catapults;
- Scout Launch Vehicle;
- Chemical Propulsion;
- Cost Reduction;
- Inductors;
- Launch Vehicle Configurations;
- Power Lines;
- Railgun Accelerators;
- Space Commercialization;
- Weight Reduction;
- Launch Vehicles and Space Vehicles