StarTram: Ultra Low Cost Launch For Large Space Architectures

Details StarTram: Ultra Low Cost Launch For Large Space Architectures StarTram: Ultra Low Cost Launch For Large Space Architectures

Feb 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004aipc..699..863p&link_type=abstract

SPACE TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS INTERNAT.FORUM-STAIF 2004: Conf.on Thermophys.in Microgravity; Commercial/Civil Next Gen.Space

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Applications

Spaceborne And Space Research Instruments, Apparatus, And Components, Superconducting Magnets, Magnetic Levitation Devices

Scientific paper

The StarTram Maglev system can launch hundreds of thousands of tons of cargo per year to orbit (~1000 times present capability) plus many thousands of passengers. The launch cost is only $30/kilogram of cargo, ~ 1/300 th of present cost. Magnetically levitated spacecraft accelerate to >=8 km/see in an evacuated ground tunnel using superconducting (SC) Maglev technology now operating in Japan for high speed trains. No propellant is used; energy from the electrical grid costs $0.50 per kg of launch weight. After reaching orbital speed, the levitated craft ascend in a curving evacuated launch tube that is magnetically levitated above Earth's surface by the repulsion force between SC cables attached to it and an opposing set of SC cables on the surface. The levitation force is 4 tons/meter of tube length at 20 km altitude, and exceeds the tube weight. High strength Kevlar tethers to the ground prevent vertical and lateral motion. Craft enter the atmosphere at 20 km through an open exit that prevents in-leakage of low density air by high speed gas ejectors and an MHD (Magnetic Hydro Dynamic) pump, and coast to apogee, where a small V burn (~500 m/s) establishes orbit. Deceleration as it enters the atmosphere at 20 km is modest, ~1 g. Peak heating is ~5 KW/cm2 for times of a few seconds before the craft reaches space. The technology for StarTram-C now exists, and no breakthroughs in materials are required. Two possible StarTram systems are compared, one for cargo only, and the second for both passengers and cargo.

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