1.2 Mass Driver Applications Mass drivers used for space applications come in the form of either a stationary launcher or as a reaction engine. As a stationary launcher, either the Earth or the Moon are suitable locations. The earth launcher could be used in launching lOOOKg payloads into earth orbit or on an escape trajectory from the solar system. Launching into orbit (from every few minutes to once a day) would require an apogee kick motor to insert it into orbit. The escape trajectory mission would be used for nuclear waste disposal (one launch per day) if that were considered desirable. In addition a mass driver could be used in a hybrid chemica1/electrica1 scheme where the mass driver replaces the first stage of a chemical (solid) rocket. This reduces the required launch velocity from the mass driver and simplifies its design. The lunar launcher could be used to support large construction efforts in space such as space manufacturing, solar power satellites, and eventually space colonization. In the near term however, it could be scaled down to a project delivering liquid oxygen (LOX) to low earth orbit quantities of 500-5000 tons per year. This LOX could be used to refuel chemical (hydrogen/oxygen) OTV's used in LEO to GEO orbit transfer missions, see Appendices A,M. This mass driver would be operated in an open loop mode with only an accelerator^ see Appendix M. It would be mostly reuseable and self sufficient but would result in a vastly simplified system for near term use. Or it could be operated in a closed loop (classical mass driver) system with recirculating buckets launching payloads to a catcher located at L2. This results in a much more complicated but nearly 100% reuseable and self sufficient system. Reaction engines (MORE) fall into two types of missions, either orbit to orbit transfer (LEO to GEO) or asteroid retreival missions.
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