Electro-Magnetic Launchers on the Moon : A Feasibility Study

The purpose of this effort is to study and perform preliminary design and simulations of an Electro-Magnetic Launcher (EML), aka mass driver (MD), for both sub-orbital and orbital launch applications. EML studies have been carried out among the railguns, which are the most explored and suffer from excessive component deterioration, and coilguns, more futuristic, which eliminate this defect through magnetic Ievitation and which are addressed in this work. While Earth applications are deterred by excessive temperatures achieved by the payload, due to friction in the atmospheric ascent as well as to the considerable deceleration, when launching from the Moon the conditions for EMLs become more favorable. They are also environment-friendly compared to conventional chemical propulsion, which creates wastes that are more toxic. In addition, MDs allow an optimal and continuous control of acceleration and have fewer constraints, compared to existing launch vehicles, regarding the payload size. A scenario examined is a notional mission in which the MD is placed inside a lunar crater. The study analyses mainly the thermal, electrical, structural, and environmental aspects, and provides an estimate of the energy needs, which have to be provided by a solar infrastructure on the crater rim, where there is almost permanent solar illumination. Not only the MD could be used to launch from the Moon to various destinations, including local depot stations at the Earth-Moon Lagrangian Point 2 (EML2) of mined materials, but it might also be convenient to move payloads between two points on the surface. The preliminary results of the study indicate that EMLs are a promising technology for future Moon missions and encourage further investigations.