Launch Loop
Its construction costs are lower, its launch capacity is greater, its per-payload costs are lower, and its feasibility is greater (i.e., non-zero as of now) compared to a space elevator...so why have I never heard of a Launch Loop (or Lofstrom Loop) until today? I guess I know now how I'll be spending my time this weekend: I'll be building one of these things in my basement.
I will need to be careful:
A running loop would have a stupendous amount of energy. While the magnetic suspension system would be highly redundant, with failures of small sections having essentially no effect at all; if a major failure did occur the energy in the loop [...] would be approaching the same scale of energy release as a small nuclear bomb explosion (350 kilotons of TNT equivalent).
Labels: sci-fi
Umie the Umlaut says, "ask your doctor about the Fredösphere!"
2 Comments:
Launch loops don't scale down very well, a small one probably wouldn't be very dangerous; the rim speed would only be a few hundred kilometers per hour, and wouldn't be able to launch anything very much.
Ah, but what if you make a small one just to serve as a proof-of-concept? Something that can launch 1kg at a few hundred kph would be fine for that. The goal is to establish that the structure will indeed hoist itself off the ground and stay there, and that eddy currents in the rotor really will bring cargo along for the ride.
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