Plasma Launchers for SPS’s B.A. OSADIN1 SUMMARY The possibility of creating terrestrial electric accelerators for launching SPS components into orbit is discussed. An accelerator is proposed that uses the anomalous plasma pressure for projectile acceleration. It is shown that such an accelerator has distinct advantages over one that relies on Ampere forces. Introduction Not less than a thousand launches from a launcher such as the Soviet "Energia" would be required to deliver the components of one SPS (rated power 5-10 million kW, having a total mass of 20-50,000 tons) into geosynchronous orbit. The launch cost would be $80-200 billion and could only be recouped by the sale of electricity produced by the SPS for about 100 years. 'faking into account the ecological consequences of frequent rocket launches, use of such techniques for launching SPS’s must be considered infeasible. It is thus possible that terrestrial electric accelerators (whose advantages over rockets were noted by K.E. Tsiolkovsky), will be used rather than rocket launchers. To project a body into space it is necessary to give it the initial orbital velocity plus the potential energy (which depends on orbit altitude), i.e., a total mechanical energy of about 3.5 x 107 J/kg- This means that, at current electrical costs of 2 cents/kWh, the cost of delivery into space may be only 20 cents/kg instead of $1000/kg. If a low-cost technology for projectile acceleration by electrical energy were available, launch of the components of a future SPS would cost on the order of 10 million dollars. The low cost of electrical energy produced by current power stations, when compared with the cost of mechanical energy that rocket engines impart to satellites, is the main argument for space transport by electric means. "But how is the electrical energy to be transformed into mechanical energy?" asked Tsiolkovsky "No electrical machines, because of their mass, are applicable here." Electromagnetic Launchers Since the final projectile velocity is fixed, accelerator parameters depend mainly on the accelerator length. The values of acceleration and power needed to reach, t All-Union Institute for Electroniechanics, Moscow, Russian Republic.
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