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http://lifeboat.com/em/arrestor.pdf
Why not use this magnetic orbital platform to pull up a scramjet? It wouldn't be so high, so the initial magnetic pull wouldn't be so strong; i just can't help thinking that with some development work(after some non-human cargo experience), we should be able to tune the system for less g's.
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Why use high power magnets? It seems to me that an old fashioned cable and net could do the same thing, plus with a long enough spool of cable you could lower the acceleration, though it's still going to be pretty extreme. The main problem I see is that the orbiting base is going to have to be quite large in relation to the projectiles/ scramjet. Otherwise the transfer in momentum will pull the whole thing out of orbit before the ion thrusters can make up the difference, although with a more elliptical orbit it might work. that's something I have virtually no understanding of however so I'm hesitant to suggest it. I like the main Idea of it though. Maybe in a few decades NASA will want to unload the ISS and it can be moved into the proper position with some more modifications.
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Yes, I would defiantly use a cord and net of some type, probably it could take people and semi- delicate cargo's that way. Assuming that the x-prize teams can make a suborbital craft to get to 150 km up with a final stage of 1000 kg the occupants would need to be able to survive 8 gee's for about 200 sec. I think this is possible with training, but I'd like some one else's opinion. The suborbital craft reaches 150 km and is caught in a Kevlar fiber net or hook of some type. Then as the base satellite mass keeps rushing past at 7800 m/s the net is slowly left to drag behind on a Kevlar cable that is unspooling from the base, but not enough to keep the suborbital craft stationary. An electric motor acts as the brake on the spool and the energy is stored for 100 sec. At that point 390 km of cable (10 -12 tons) has been unspooled and the suborbital craft has been brought up to orbital speed. The electric engine then starts pulling in the cable using the stored energy and additional solar power for another 100 sec, or slower and longer if preferred. Then the base station compensates for the loss in momentum slowly with ion or hall thrusters.
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