Electromagnetic mass driver

A Mass driver is a device that accelerates payloads to high velocity using a linear electromagnetic coil. Since a mass driver is essentially a means of propulsion like rocketry, it can be put to several different uses both benign and destructive, the latter perhaps being the more notorious. From L5 News, September Mass Drivers were proposed by Professor Gerard O’Neill in as the logical means for transporting lunar raw material to L As all but perhaps a few of the newest L-5 members know, mass drivers are electromagnetic launchers which accelerate payloads in recirculating buckets with superconducting magnet coils at a repetition rate of . The mass driver works by two electromagnets being attracted to each other and hence causing acceleration. One coil is smaller than the other, and passes through the center of the larger coil. The larger coil is the "drive coil", anchored down to be stationary, and the smaller coil is the accelerated "bucket coil".

A mass driver, also called an electromagnetic cannon, is a method of spacecraft propulsion that would use a linear motor to accelerate payloads up to high speeds. All existing and contemplated mass drivers use coils of wire energized by electricity to make electromagnets. Electromagnetic mass drivers using solar power provide low cost transportation of materials to space construction sites. Courtesy: Space Studies Institute Recent testing of an electromagnetic railgun by the U.S. Navy has led to firing a projectile up to Mach 6 – approaching a velocity that harkens back to early ideas of utilizing this technology on the Moon to hurl payloads from the lunar surface. A mass driver or electromagnetic catapult is a proposed method of non-rocket spacelaunch which would use a linear motor to accelerate and catapult payloads up to high speeds. Existing and contemplated mass drivers use coils of wire energized by electricity to make electromagnets, though a rotary mass driver has also been proposed. Sequential firing of a row of electromagnets accelerates the payload along a path. After leaving the path, the payload continues to move due to momentum. Although any.

Mar Also known as an electromagnetic catapult, a mass driver acts like a coilgun to magnetically accelerate a magnetized holder containing a. Apr What size payloads could we feasibly launch from the moon with a mass driver? orbital-mechanics the-moon payload mass mass-driver. A mass driver or electromagnetic catapult is a proposed method of non-rocket spacelaunch which would use a linear motor to accelerate and catapult payloads.