A few initial trips using advanced shuttle and inter-orbital tug type vehicles will be sufficient to get things started. Subsequent transportation would be devoted to bringing people to the colonies and back to * earth. MSFC, in an assessment of this concept, determined that the following transportation elements would be needed before the establishment of the first Model 1 colony. Vehicle Space Shuttle Advanced Shuttle Reusable Nuclear Stage (Solid Core) Lunar Logistics Tug Reusable Nuclear Stage (Gas Core) Advanced Logistics Tug "Super" Shuttle O'Neill tends to disagree with this part of the MSFC assessment and focuses on the moving of lunar material to L5 or some appropriate intermediate orbit for processing and fabrication of power stations and colonies. The solution to this problem is called the "mass driver" or "transport linear accelerator." This device is a linear electric motor nearly 9 miles (14 km) in length with 10 magnetically suspended buckets weighing about 10 pounds (5 kg) and measuring 20 inches (50 cm) in length. Each bucket has a payload capacity of 20 pounds (9 kg). The buckets are accelerated to above lunar escape velocity 1.5 miles per second (2.4 km/sec) and then decelerated to release the payload on its trajectory to L5. Guidance is by dynamic magnetic levitation. The buckets are then slowed, refilled and recirculated. O'Neill estimates an overall efficiency of more than 60 * At some point it is presumed the people would pay for this transportation themselves.
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