h a l f b a k e r yIt's as much a hovercraft as a pancake is a waffle.
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This is a large platform in low Earth orbit, consisting of a substantial mass, power generation (solar?) and a long railgun (10 km?).
This facility would provide a way-station for spacecraft launched into low-earth orbit, which could dock and then be accelerated via railgun into a higher geostationary
orbit, lunar, or earth escape trajectory.
It would also aid in de-orbiting earth-bound craft. The Earth-bound ship would dock, and then be accelerated in a de-orbit direction, thus greatly reducing the speed relative to atmosphere, thus reducing the need for heat-shielding. This could possibly be aided by the craft's own deceleration rockets, especially if re-fueled.
The platform could also function as a fuel depot, hotel, manufacturing and research facility. It might need to be equipped with its own thrusters to compensate for launching more outbound than inbound cargo.
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[+] a LEO platform linear accelerator's a new one. |
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I have always said that I would happily give a foot to go into
space, I now have to say that I would give my other one to
get into space and use one of these. |
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Hmmm, not if the launch direction was to the rear of the platform. Then the force of the recoil could help in stabilizing the platforms’ decaying orbit. |
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All space missions in matched pairs? |
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Fly up to orbit with a re-usable booster. Dock with the railgun platform, de-mate the payload module from the booster. De-orbit the booster, which gains the platform a bunch of velocity; then turn and fire off the payload module, returning the platform to its proper orbital velocity. |
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I think on one load, you'd fire downhill / uphill, and then reverse order for the next load. |
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//All space missions in matched pairs?// |
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Good for a half-orbit at least. |
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Niven did this on his Ringworld. (Along the rim, but equivilent in purpose) |
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As I said, a substantial mass. Think captured asteroid, not to mention tons of supplies such as food and fuel, plus hotel, hydroponic gardens, zero-gee swimming pool (with giant view window of course), robot army, docked ships, etc. This provides the feature of each launch having only a small impact on the platform's orbit. You then use your ion thrusters over days or weeks to correct, assuming no opposite direction launch is scheduled soon. |
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Sorry if this was in a Ringworld book, I only read one of them. |
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nuthin' to do with Niven's Ringworld that I can see. |
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[+] although lassoing that meteorite wont be easy. |
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