CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Mass Driver History A Mass Driver is an electrical synchronous motor used to accelerate payloads of any material to a high velocity. A bucket containing superconducting coils carry the payloads. These buckets are accelerated by pulsed magnetic fields to a predetermined velocity. Timing is done by optical position sensors and magnetic levitation forces from guidestrips is used to prevent contact of the bucket to the guideway. These buckets then release their payload and then are slowed down (empty) by a decelerator for recirculation to be reused. The first linear synchronous accelerator was built by Edwin Northrup in the 1930's at Princeton University . Later Arthur C. Clarke formally proposed a lunar launcher and used it in one of his . novels . Robert Heinlein used them in two of his novels as a lunar and earth launcher Other efforts in the 1940's were conducted in Germany during World War II for launching guided missiles and by Westinghouse for launching aircraft(B 25's). The German effort failed due to the induction drive melting the skin of the missiles before they reached any appreciable velocity. The Westinghouse "electropult” was successful but did not compete with the steam catapults then being used. These efforts were premature in that the required technology for energy storage and switching were not available. By the mid 1970's, technology became available for electromagnetic accelerators to be considered again as efficient and competitive launchers.
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