Space Studies Institute 195 Nassau Street P.O. Box 82 Princeton, NJ 08540 SUBSCRIBERS' NEWSLETTER Mass-Driver Report -- Lectures Senior Associate Program Surrrner 1980 This summer issue is primarily devoted to a detailed description of the mass-driver. How A Mass-Dri ver Works: The mass-driver is a device whose capabilities are vital for the economical utilization of nonterrestrial materials in space manufacturing. For the benefit especially of new subscribers to SSI's Newsletter, here is a brief non-technical explanation of how a mass-driver works. The purpose of a mass-driver is to accelerate payloads of mass to a high velocity, by the transformation of electrical energy to the mechanical energy of motion. In one application, the payloads would be of lunar soil, the mass-driver would be mounted on the lunar surface, and it would accelerate the payloads to the escape velocity from the Moon. They would escape lunar gravity and be collected at a point in space to serve as raw material for space manufacturing. Although the complete circuit of a mass-driver is quite complicated, the vital principles of mass-driver operation can be described relatively simply. The payload is carried by a "bucket", which has a forward-facing open cavity. Around the cavity are one or more superconducting coils, circular in shape, as in the sketch. - c.aN,.A. -·--i-·-·-·- L1'11 : : _._,. c~~TY "•at .• ...,.... -.._ cu--.lleNT Gr01N6r INT"O PAM. In the superconducting coil the current is constant. The mass-driver accelerator pushes the bucket in the forward direction until it reaches the desired maximum speed, then decelerates it. The payload continues forward at
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