Orbital Coilgun Launcher

Kurzfassung

The concept of accelerating payloads by electromagnetic fields in space needs lots of fundamental research and is by best available technologies today not feasible without a process of research and development of ten/twenty years. After the first study the concept was changed from an antipodal satellite accelerator to a stationary launcher in the space, so the complexity of the requirement that the satellites meet in different orbits for many times is reduced one launch from one orbit into another. The system requires transporting a heavy mass for space application for example possibility to launch small missions to Moon and beyond, a high efficiency of the process additional high force in a short time, possibility to control automatically and be an independent system without support from the Earth. These requirements contain a safe and proved system, where guesses should be avoided. The acceleration by an electromagnetic field to compete with chemical propulsion gives many advantages, but there are negative aspects which make it difficult to realize a stationary launcher in space. For example electrical propulsion has no limitation in velocity (only in range of speed of light) like chemical propulsion, but they need a higher energy density and strain the material and components more in different aspects like mechanical, thermal and electromagnetic stress. So this defines a new limitation and also the structure, design and behavior is more complex than chemical propulsions. There exist many assumptions and con-cepts about electromagnetic launchers for example Linear Induction Launchers (LIL), but they are only proved by experiments for low masses. The most difficult and elusive point is to connect all parts in an optimal way together like geometrical parameters, synchronization, switching, circuits, power supply, pulse induction time and consider all factors of influence like mutual inductance, material parameters, heat radiation, coaxial movement and tolerance. Therefore it is necessary to research and develop in electromagnetic technologies to allow concepts as described within this report for being feasible in next decades.