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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 up to high speeds. Existing and proposed
mass drivers use coils of wire energized by
electricity to make electromagnets, though a rotary
mass driver has also been proposed.[1] 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.
Artist's conception of a mass driver on the Moon
Although any device used to propel a ballistic
payload is technically a mass driver, in this context
a mass driver is essentially a coilgun that magnetically accelerates a package consisting of a
magnetizable holder containing a payload. Once the payload has been accelerated, the two
separate, and the holder is slowed and recycled for another payload.

Mass drivers can be used to propel spacecraft in three different ways: A large, ground-based mass
driver could launch spacecraft away from Earth, the Moon, or another body. A small mass driver
could act as a rocket engine on board a spacecraft, flinging pieces of material into space to propel
itself. Another variation would have a massive facility on a moon or asteroid send projectiles to
assist a distant craft.

Miniaturized mass drivers can also be used as weapons in a similar manner as classic firearms or
cannon using chemical combustion. Hybrids between coilguns and railguns such as helical railguns
are also possible.[2]

Fixed mass drivers

Mass drivers need no physical contact between moving parts because they guide their projectiles
by dynamic magnetic levitation, allowing extreme reusability in the case of solid-state power
switching, and a functional life of – theoretically – up to millions of launches. While marginal costs
tend to be accordingly low, initial development and construction costs are highly dependent on
performance, especially the intended mass, acceleration, and velocity of projectiles. For instance,
while Gerard O'Neill built his first mass driver in 1976–1977 with a $2000 budget, a short test
model firing a projectile at 40 m/s and 33 g,[3] his next model had an order-of-magnitude greater
acceleration[4] after a comparable increase in funding, and, a few years later, researchers at the
University of Texas estimated that a mass driver firing a 10 kilogram projectile at 6000 m/s would
cost $47 million.[5][6]

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For a given amount of energy involved, heavier objects go proportionally slower. Lightweight
objects may be projected at 20 km/s or more. The limits are generally the expense of energy
storage able to be discharged quickly enough and the cost of power switching, which may be by
semiconductors or by gas-phase switches (which still often have a niche in extreme pulse power
applications).[7][8][9] However, energy can be stored inductively in superconducting coils. A 1 km
long mass driver made of superconducting coils can accelerate a 20 kg vehicle to 10.5 km/s at a
conversion efficiency of 80%, and average acceleration of 5,600 g.[10]

Earth-based mass drivers for propelling vehicles to orbit, such as the StarTram concept, would
require considerable capital investment.[11] The Earth's relatively strong gravity and relatively thick
atmosphere make the implementation of a practical solution difficult. Also, most if not all plausible
launch sites would propel spacecraft through heavily-traversed air routes. Due to the massive
turbulence such launches would cause, significant air traffic control measures would be needed to
ensure the safety of other aircraft operating in the area.

With the proliferation of reusable rockets to launch from Earth (especially first stages) whatever
potential might have once existed for any economic advantage in using mass drivers as an
alternative to chemical rockets to launch from Earth is becoming increasingly doubtful. For these
reasons many proposals feature installing mass drivers on the Moon where the lower gravity and
lack of atmosphere greatly reduce the required velocity to reach lunar orbit; also, lunar launches
from a fixed position are much less likely to generate issues with respect to matters such as traffic
control.

Most serious mass-driver designs use superconducting coils to achieve reasonable energetic
efficiency (often 50% to 90+%, depending on design).[12] Equipment may include a
superconducting bucket or aluminum coil as the payload. The coils of a mass driver can induce
eddy currents in a payload's aluminum coil, and then act on the resulting magnetic field. There are
two sections of a mass driver. The maximum acceleration part spaces the coils at constant
distances, and synchronizes the coil currents to the bucket. In this section, the acceleration
increases as the velocity increases, up to the maximum that the bucket can take. After that, the
constant acceleration region begins. This region spaces the coils at increasing distances to give a
fixed amount of velocity increase per unit of time.

Based on this mode, a major proposal for the use of mass drivers involved transporting lunar-
surface material to space habitats for processing using solar energy.[13] The Space Studies Institute
showed that this application was reasonably practical.

In some designs, the payload would be held in a bucket and then released, so that the bucket can be
decelerated and reused. A disposable bucket, on the other hand, would avail acceleration along the
whole track. Alternatively, if a track were constructed along the entire circumference of the Moon
(or any other celestial body without a significant atmosphere) then a reusable bucket's acceleration
would not be limited by the length of the track – however, such a system would need to be
engineered to withstand substantial centrifugal forces if it were intended to accelerate passengers
and/or cargo to very high velocities.

On Earth
In contrast to cargo-only chemical space-gun concepts, a mass driver could be any length,
affordable, and with relatively smooth acceleration throughout, optionally even lengthy enough to
reach target velocity without excessive g forces for passengers. It can be constructed as a very long
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and mainly horizontally aligned launch track for spacelaunch, targeted upwards at the end, partly
by bending of the track upwards and partly by Earth's curvature in the other direction.

Natural elevations, such as mountains, may facilitate the construction of the distant, upwardly
targeted part. The higher up the track terminates, the less resistance from the atmosphere the
launched object will encounter.[14]

The 40 megajoules per kilogram or less kinetic energy of projectiles launched at up to 9000 m/s
velocity (if including extra for drag losses) towards low Earth orbit is a few kilowatt-hours per
kilogram if efficiencies are relatively high, which accordingly has been hypothesized to be under $1
of electrical energy cost per kilogram shipped to LEO, though total costs would be far more than
electricity alone.[11] By being mainly located slightly above, on or beneath the ground, a mass
driver may be easier to maintain compared with many other structures of non-rocket spacelaunch.
Whether or not underground, it needs to be housed in a pipe that is vacuum pumped in order to
prevent internal air drag, such as with a mechanical shutter kept closed most of the time but a
plasma window used during the moments of firing to prevent loss of vacuum.[15]

A mass driver on Earth would usually be a compromise system. A mass driver would accelerate a
payload up to some high speed which would not be enough for orbit. It would then release the
payload, which would complete the launch with rockets. This would drastically reduce the amount
of velocity needed to be provided by rockets to reach orbit. Well under a tenth of orbital velocity
from a small rocket thruster is enough to raise perigee if a design prioritizes minimizing such, but
hybrid proposals optionally reduce requirements for the mass driver itself by having a greater
portion of delta-v by a rocket burn (or orbital momentum exchange tether).[11] On Earth, a mass-
driver design could possibly use well-tested maglev components.

To launch a space vehicle with humans on board, a mass driver's track would need to be almost
1000 kilometres long if providing almost all the velocity to Low Earth Orbit, though a lesser length
could still provide major launch assist. Required length, if accelerating mainly at near a constant
maximum acceptable g-force for passengers, is proportional to velocity squared.[16] For instance,
half of the velocity goal could correspond to a tunnel a quarter as long needing to be constructed,
for the same acceleration.[16] For rugged objects, much higher accelerations may suffice, allowing a
far shorter track, potentially circular or helical (spiral).[17] Another concept involves a large ring
design whereby a space vehicle would circle the ring numerous times, gradually gaining speed,
before being released into a launch corridor leading skyward.

Mass drivers have been proposed for the disposal of nuclear waste in space: a projectile launched
at much above Earth's escape velocity would escape the Solar System, with atmospheric passage at
such speed calculated as survivable through an elongated projectile and a very substantial
heatshield.[10][18]

Spacecraft-based mass drivers

A spacecraft could carry a mass driver as its primary engine. With a suitable source of electrical
power (probably a nuclear reactor) the spaceship could then use the mass driver to accelerate
pieces of matter of almost any sort, boosting itself in the opposite direction. At the smallest scale of
reaction mass, this type of drive is called an ion drive.

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No absolute theoretical limit is known for the size, acceleration or muzzle energy of linear motors.
However, practical engineering constraints apply for such as the power-to-mass ratio, waste heat
dissipation, and the energy intake able to be supplied and handled. Exhaust velocity is best neither
too low nor too high.[19]

There is a mission-dependent limited optimal exhaust velocity and specific impulse for any
thruster constrained by a limited amount of onboard spacecraft power. Thrust and momentum
from exhaust, per unit mass expelled, scales up linearly with its velocity (momentum = mv), yet
kinetic energy and energy input requirements scale up faster with velocity squared (kinetic energy
= 1⁄2 mv2). Too low an exhaust velocity would excessively increase propellant mass needed under
the rocket equation, with too high a fraction of energy going into accelerating propellant not used
yet. Higher exhaust velocity has both benefit and tradeoff, increasing propellant usage efficiency
(more momentum per unit mass of propellant expelled) but decreasing thrust and the current rate
of spacecraft acceleration if available input power is constant (less momentum per unit of energy
given to propellant).[19]

Electric propulsion methods like mass drivers are systems where energy does not come from the
propellant itself. (This contrasts with chemical rockets where propulsive efficiency varies with the
ratio of exhaust velocity to vehicle velocity at the time, but near maximum obtainable specific
impulse tends to be a design goal when corresponding to the most energy released from reacting
propellants). Although the specific impulse of an electric thruster itself optionally could range up to
where mass drivers merge into particle accelerators with fractional-lightspeed exhaust velocity for
tiny particles, trying to use extreme exhaust velocity to accelerate a far slower spacecraft could be
suboptimally low thrust when the energy available from a spacecraft's reactor or power source is
limited (a lesser analogue of feeding onboard power to a row of spotlights, photons being an
example of an extremely low momentum to energy ratio).[19]

For instance, if limited onboard power fed to its engine was the dominant limitation on how much
payload a hypothetical spacecraft could shuttle (such as if intrinsic propellant economic cost was
minor from usage of extraterrestrial soil or ice), ideal exhaust velocity would rather be around
62.75% of total mission delta v if operating at constant specific impulse, except greater
optimization could come from varying exhaust velocity during the mission profile (as possible with
some thruster types, including mass drivers and variable specific impulse magnetoplasma
rockets).[19]

Since a mass driver could use any type of mass for reaction mass to move the spacecraft, a mass
driver or some variation seems ideal for deep-space vehicles that scavenge reaction mass from
found resources.

One possible drawback of the mass driver is that it has the potential to send solid reaction mass
travelling at dangerously high relative speeds into useful orbits and traffic lanes. To overcome this
problem, most schemes plan to throw finely-divided dust. Alternatively, liquid oxygen could be
used as reaction mass, which upon release would boil down to its molecular state. Propelling the
reaction mass to solar escape velocity is another way to ensure that it will not remain a hazard.

Hybrid mass drivers

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A mass driver on a spacecraft could be used to "reflect" masses from a stationary mass driver. Each
deceleration and acceleration of the mass contributes to the momentum of the spacecraft. The
lightweight, fast spacecraft need not carry reaction mass, and does not need much electricity
beyond the amount needed to replace losses in the electronics, while the immobile support facility
can run off power plants able to be much larger than the spacecraft if needed. This could be
considered a form of beam-powered propulsion (a macroscopic-scale analogue of a particle beam
propelled magsail). A similar system could also deliver pellets of fuel to a spacecraft to power
another propulsion system.[20][21][22][23]

Another theoretical use for this concept of propulsion can be found in space fountains, a system in
which a continuous stream of pellets in a circular track holds up a tall structure.

Mass drivers as weapons

Small to moderate size high-acceleration electromagnetic projectile launchers are currently
undergoing active research by the US Navy[24] for use as ground-based or ship-based weapons
(most often railguns but coilguns in some cases). On larger scale than weapons currently near
deployment but sometimes suggested in long-range future projections, a sufficiently high velocity
linear motor, a mass driver, could in theory be used as intercontinental artillery (or, if built on the
Moon or in orbit, used to attack a location on Earth's surface).[25][26][27] As the mass driver would
be located further up the gravity well than the theoretical targets, it would enjoy a significant
energy imbalance in terms of counter-attack.

Practical attempts
One of the first engineering descriptions of an "Electric Gun" appears in the technical supplement
of the 1937 science fiction novel "Zero to Eighty" by "Akkad Pseudoman",[28] a pen name for the
Princeton physicist and electrical entrepreneur Edwin Fitch Northrup. Dr. Northrup built
prototype coil guns powered by kHz-frequency three-phase electrical generators, and the book
contains photographs of some of these prototypes. The book describes a fictional circumnavigation
of the moon by a two-person vehicle launched by a Northrup electric gun.

Later prototype mass drivers have been built since 1976 (Mass Driver 1), some constructed by the
U.S. Space Studies Institute in order to prove their properties and practicality. Military R&D on
coilguns is related, as are maglev trains.

SpinLaunch, a company founded in 2014, conducted the initial test of their test accelerator in
October 2021.[29]

See also

Spaceflight portal

Science portal

Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System

Railgun
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Plasma railgun
Helical railgun
Coilgun
Ram accelerator
Light-gas gun
Linear motor
StarTram
Launch loop
Space fountain
Spacecraft propulsion

People
Eric Laithwaite and the Maglifter project
Gerard K. O'Neill
Henry Kolm

References
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2. Kolm, H.; et al. (1980). "Electromagnetic Guns, Launchers, and Reaction Engines" (http://www.
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3. Compare: Henson, Keith; Henson, Carolyn (June 1977). "1977 Space Manufacturing Facilities
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External links
Electromagnetic Guns (http://www.coilgun.info/theory/electroguns.htm) Archived (https://web.ar
chive.org/web/20080516063621/http://www.coilgun.info/theory/electroguns.htm) 2008-05-16 at
the Wayback Machine—a page describing research into linear motors at MIT
Electromagnetic Launch of Lunar Material (https://web.archive.org/web/20060923071521/htt
p://www.belmont.k12.ca.us/ralston/programs/itech/SpaceSettlement/spaceresvol2/electromag.
html)
Shiga, David (3 October 2006). "Huge 'launch ring' to fling satellites into orbit" (https://www.new
scientist.com/article/dn10180-huge-launch-ring-to-fling-satellites-into-orbit.html). New Scientist.

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