1.3 Mass Driver Two Mass Driver Two went through substantial changes from what was originally planned to what was finally constructed and tested. Original plans were that MD 2 would be a 1000g's, 10m closed loop synchrotron model with a recirculating bucket. It would of had 5m acceleration and 5m deceleration sections with an injection leg and possibly a free flight test section inbetween the accelerator and decelerator for observation of the superconducting bucket. This model would have had all the features of a full scale mass driver except for payload release. Since there was insufficient space at Princeton to house this device and a feeling that the return line and recirculating buckets need not be demonstrated at this time as an integral part of the mass driver, the synchrotron model was abandoned. Instead a 10m (5m acceleration, 5m deceleration) single shot linear mass driver with 1000g's acceleration and a superconducting bucket became the proposed device at the beginning of this grant. Work on the superconducting bucket was the responsibility of M.I.T. lead by Dr. Henry H. Kolm. While all other aspects and construction location was to be at Princeton. The caliber was chosen to be 13.1cm which permitted the use of four inch ID glass pipe (later plexiglass was substituted) as the vacuum jacket for the superconducting bucket and allowing for a 0.1D build on the drive coils. Energy transfer calculations were made to determine the voltages and currents required by the SCR's. Results showed that 1000g's would require a substantially larger and more expensive SCR than was desired. So, 500g's became the nominal design acceleration allowing for safety margins in the SCR specs, and repetitive operation. It was decided upon to make Mass Driver Two (10m version) into six modular units for mobility and ease of assembly. This resulted in the mass
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