Another successful SpaceX launch and landing

Snidely wrote:
Thursday, Rick Jones quipped:
If I recall past discussions correctly, that is some sort of
stiffening band/ring that is expected to detach sortly after
engine start-up.

I thought it looked like that sort of item, but I don't think I have
noticed it on previous flights. Thanks.

A bit of web searching "falcon 9 stiffening ring" turned-up:

http://www.spacex.com/news/2013/02/0...ght-1-pictures

rick jones
--
a wide gulf separates "what if" from "if only"
these opinions are mine, all mine; HPE might not want them anyway...
feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hpe.com but NOT BOTH...

bob haller wrote:

On Thursday, July 21, 2016 at 5:51:49 PM UTC-4, Fred J. McCall wrote:
bob haller wrote:

fuel could be sent to orbit in tanks, powered by a railgun type launch run up the side of a high mountain...

Such a railgun could only launch to specific orbits which may not be
the ones where you need the fuel. However, regardless of that, any
method you have for putting fuel in tanks on orbit would work equally
well for putting fully fueled stages on orbit and you don't need all
the automated refueling systems.

Put the fueled stages where you want them when you want them there. I
don't see any case where that is not a net win over having to develop
all the on orbit refueling technology so that you can refuel spent
stages that may not even be where you need them to be.


are you saying a railgun could launch a booster fully fueled?


Are you saying a railgun could launch a fuel tank fully fueled?


--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
--George Bernard Shaw

Thank you for your non-answers, clearly demonstrating that you're just
Mookjacking the thread.

William Mook wrote:

On Friday, July 22, 2016 at 12:26:19 AM UTC+12, Fred J. McCall wrote:
William Mook wrote:

On Thursday, July 21, 2016 at 2:16:01 PM UTC+12, Greg (Strider) Moore wrote:
"Fred J. McCall" wrote in message
...

bob haller wrote:

i wonder if stages could be put in orbit, strapped together somehow, and
used to boost very large cargo runs to mars?

the boosters would need refueled. but their cost would be very low


There are those who disagree with me, but I've never seen the point of
refueling until we have a LOT more going on. Since you've got to
boost the fuel up anyway, why not just boost fully fueled stages?


Yeah... that's the part I can't figure out... what you really save here.
I'll admit I think it's an interesting idea, but not sure how it works
(besides the obvious logistical issues already mentioned.)


http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/t..._company.shtml

If Diemos has as much water as its low density suggests, the best place to set up a base for Mars exploration and development will likely be Diemos.


Non sequitur.

No, its relevant to a practical mission. Its you who obviously cannot see it.

Which part of "refueling spent stages in Earth orbit"
was it that took you to Mars?

Which part of having very high specific impulse stage on orbit is superior solution to having more low impulse propellant on orbit? This is part of the mission planning process and provides for a superior Mars mission cycle.

Getting propellant already present in Mars' orbit does the most to simplify mission planning for a Mars mission. Particularly if high specific impulse propulsion is available on orbit at Earth - as outlined in 1954. Today we use highly concentrating solar collectors in conjunction with hyper-efficient photovoltaics as described in my patents on the subject.

* * *
Refuelling on Mars
* * *

Let's consider a Falcon Heavy launching LNG/LOX propellant to refuel an upper stage that has a 3.3 km/sec exhaust velocity with the ability to make LNG/LOX on Mars after landing on Mars.

The payload is 54,000 kg - with 20,000 kg Dragon capsule equipped with a landing on Mars and return to Mars orbit, and 34,000 kg inflatable Mission module similar to a B330 module, with long term life support.

We need a hyperbolic excess velocity at Earth of 4.5 km/sec. We need a hyperbolic excess velocity at Mars of 3.0 km/sec. We need a delta vee on orbit of 4.2 km/sec to fly to Mars. With a 3.3 km/sec this implies a propellant fraction of 72.0% - and with a 3.0% structure fraction, we have a payload fraction of 25.0%. So, with a 54,000 kg payload, that's a stage weight of 216,000 kg with 162,000 kg of propellant.

So, we need one Falcon Heavy launch to put up the vehicle, and three more Falcon Heavy Launches to put up the propellant. This propellant gets burned, and the Red Dragon separates and lands on Mars, whilst the mission module brakes into a Mars Synchronous orbit over the Dragon capsule landing site.

The Red Dragon uses sunlight to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen, and uses the hydrogen to gather carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere to make methane. The 20,000 kg payload must be accelerated to 3.56 km/sec. This means that the stage weight is 3x the payload and the propellant is 2x the payload. This is 40,000 kg of LOX/LNG that must be made from Martian resources. With a 3.21 to 1.00 Oxygen to Fuel mass ratio

http://www.dlr.de/Portaldata/55/Reso...5-0212prop.pdf

This means that we make 9,502 kg of methane and 30,499 kg of oxygen. The methane contains 2,375.3 kg of hydrogen and using the Sabatier process;

CO2 + 4 H2 -- CH4 + 2 H2O

requires 4,751 kg of hydrogen to make the required methane, since half the hydrogen goes back into water! Using process water reduces new water input

2 H2O + 2 H2O (process) = 4 H2O
4 H2O + energy -- 4 H2 + 2 O2

So, to make 4,751 kg of hydrogen requires 42,768 litres of water half of which is recycled. So, 21,384 litres of fresh water is required . 673.7 gigajoules of energy is required to make this propellant at a minimum.

With a 180 day stay time this is 3.75 GJ/day. With a 12 hour insolation and 510 W/m2 we require a large concentrator that tracks the Sun producing 16 peak megawatts reliably for 12 hours.

This boosts the lander to orbit where it docks with the mission module and returns to Earth.

Meanwhile, on orbit, the mission module makes its way to Diemos and refuels there. Leaving Mars requires a hyperbolic excess velocity of 3 km/sec and Mars' escape velocity is 5.03 km/sec. So, the total delta vee from the Surface is 5.9 km/sec and from Diemos 4.6 km/sec. This requires 108,000 kg of propellant, and a similar calculation can be done for Diemos. This requires a source of water and carbon be found on the tiny moon.

* * *
All Propellant
* * *

Alternatively, a dozen launches to orbit can be made to lift 108,000 kg of propellant to Mars, and another four launches to orbit can be made to lift 40,000 kg of propellant to Mars to deposit on the surface. This reduces the power requirements on Mars and improves reliability - at a tremendous cost in launches;

(1) - Mars vehicle 54,000 kg - lander + mission module
(2),(3),(4) 162,000 kg - departure propellant.
(5) - Mars orbit propellant (54,000 kg)
(6),(7),(8) 162,000 kg - departure propellant.
(9) - Mars orbit propellant (54,000 kg)
(10),(11),(12) - 162,000 kg - departure propellant.
(13) - Mars return propellant (and supplies) (40,000 kg + 14,000 kg supplies)
(14),(15),(16) - 162,000 kg - departure propellant.

For safety its best to have three mission vehicles, with spare capacity. So, we're talking 48 launches altogether. Another 2 launches for support, news and promotion.

At $60 million per launch, and $40 million per payload - that's $4.8 billion.

With hardware strewn across the inner solar system, and only the capsule recovered!

* * *

Now, compare this to the two launches required with the updated Sthulinger style mission described earlier! At $100 million per launch, a dozen vehicles are sent for $2.4 billion - half the cost - and ALL the hardware is FULLY REUSED with MULTIPLE LANDINGS FROM ORBIT over the period. We only need find water on Diemos or Phobos. If we do not, we can return to Earth, reuse the vehicles, and orbit the fuel for another $1.2 billion! We could also have a handful of landings from propellant brought along - regardless. So, we have one or two or three landings and return - from the one dozen vehicles - and a thorough root around Diemos and Phobos.

Awesome!

* * *

--
"Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar
territory."
--G. Behn

William Mook wrote:

In low Earth orbit, electromagnetic forces can be exploited with solar power, to modify the orbit of a satellite to achieve any plane change or effect rendezvous without any use of propellant.

https://www.researchgate.net/publica...ulsion_systems


If you've got a few decades, perhaps.




On Friday, July 22, 2016 at 9:51:49 AM UTC+12, Fred J. McCall wrote:
bob haller wrote:

fuel could be sent to orbit in tanks, powered by a railgun type launch run up the side of a high mountain...

Such a railgun could only launch to specific orbits which may not be
the ones where you need the fuel. However, regardless of that, any
method you have for putting fuel in tanks on orbit would work equally
well for putting fully fueled stages on orbit and you don't need all
the automated refueling systems.

Put the fueled stages where you want them when you want them there. I
don't see any case where that is not a net win over having to develop
all the on orbit refueling technology so that you can refuel spent
stages that may not even be where you need them to be.


--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
--George Bernard Shaw

Are you saying a railgun could launch a fuel tank fully fueled?


i believe so, a special fuel tank .......

"bob haller" wrote in message
...




Are you saying a railgun could launch a fuel tank fully fueled?


i believe so, a special fuel tank .......

So what would make it special that wouldn't also make a booster special.

i.e. what's the real advantage here?
Keep in mind with an atmosphere, you've got a severe drag issue until you're
up high, so that's a BIG drawback of an Earth based railgun.
And you still need to circularize your orbit.

--
Greg D. Moore http://greenmountainsoftware.wordpress.com/
CEO QuiCR: Quick, Crowdsourced Responses. http://www.quicr.net

bob haller wrote:


Are you saying a railgun could launch a fuel tank fully fueled?


i believe so, a special fuel tank .......


Yeah, yours seems like a very 'special' scheme...

Bobbert, if you can launch a fuel tank you can launch a complete
stage. What you can't do is launch it to a desired orbital plane,
since your launch angle is fixed to a mountain. In fact, your
'special tank' is going to require engines anyway, else it's either
going into space forever or making one orbit and hitting the ground.


--
"Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar
territory."
--G. Behn

On Sunday, July 24, 2016 at 12:36:45 AM UTC+12, Fred J. McCall wrote:
bob haller wrote:


Are you saying a railgun could launch a fuel tank fully fueled?


i believe so, a special fuel tank .......


Yeah, yours seems like a very 'special' scheme...

Bobbert, if you can launch a fuel tank you can launch a complete
stage. What you can't do is launch it to a desired orbital plane,
since your launch angle is fixed to a mountain. In fact, your
'special tank' is going to require engines anyway, else it's either
going into space forever or making one orbit and hitting the ground.


--
"Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar
territory."
--G. Behn


My friend Keith Loftstrom and I discussed this at length back in the early 2000s at a space conference we both attended at that time. This grew out of an idea other friends of mine, Robert Forward and Marvin Minskey, had, called 'space fountain'.

http://launchloop.com
http://www.orbitalvector.com/Orbital...0Fountains.htm
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2003/...ailroads.shtml
http://slides.launchloop.com//launchloop.pdf
http://www.star-tech-inc.com/papers/...esentation.pdf

Basically, you shoot a magnetic material at high speed through an evacuated tube and arrange a set of electro magnet loops to withdraw momentum from that magnetic material so that it exerts a controlled force on the thing the electromagnets are attached to! In this way, you can build a tower of any height. Lofstrom's idea is to control the trajectory of the magnetic material so that you create a launch trajectory and support a maglev system that accelerates payloads along it.

By controlling the trajectory of the iron stream or other stream of magnetic material particles, the trajectory can be made to point in any direction.

Consider a 3 gee trajectory that reaches escape velocity, 11,190 m/sec. Its easy to see that such a trajectory is 2,128 km long. Construction proceeds at the launch point as follow;

(1) Start by building a launch ring to accelerate masses up to double escape velocity,

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...aunch_ring.jpg

(2) arrange to project the masses straight up through a vacuum tube,
(3) build a cap on the vacuum tube that turns the mass stream downward through a second vacuum tube.
(4) arrange to receive the downward stream, and use it to feed the ground based mass driver.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-ro...e_fountain.svg

(5) An airlock at the base of the two vacuum tube sections, permits the raising of the vacuum section by one length, by increasing the mass flow rate or velocity, or both and;
(6) Construction of an added section, with its own lift coil in the airlock,
(7) Repeat #5 & #6 until the desired 2,128 km length is reached.

Now, the vacuum sections are only required until an altitude of 212 km is reached. After that, the interconnected lift coils, power cables and so forth, roll inside the vacuum jacket supporting it, but not extending it, as the interior is extended.

Each section is connected to the next via a non-supporting U-joint permitting the entire track to flex like a chain.

When the requisite track length is reached, (2,128 km) guidance coils, and gyro control in each section, steer the track to the desired trajectory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_6p-1J551Y

The 'kinetic track' supports a maglev track within the mass stream. This starts inside the vacuum jacket at the ground and ends at the turn at the end of the mass stream used for kinetic support.

Following the 'switch on' ceremony of Project Beta at Harvard, I had the great good fortune to discuss details of this design with Bob and Marvin, as well as Carl Sagan and Paul Horowitz well into the evening following dinner at Harvard's Hasty Pudding Club, with a quick jaunt to Ben & Jerry's Harvard Square Ice Cream shop, and drinks at Paul's house.

Since that time considerable theoretical work has been done on a 12 meter diameter by 60 meter long maglev track, lift and vacuum jacket, section that is at the heart of the airlock -A 10 meter diameter capsule within a 12 meter diameter by 60 meter long vacuum jacket consisting of a bellows spring arrangement allowing it to operate like a flexible straw.

A 60 meter long by 10 meter diameter cargo pod, that carries the same cargo density as the Space Shuttle's cargo bay, lifts 395 metric tons. Assuming only one payload in the gun at a time it takes 380 seconds to reach escape velocity. The power required to do this is 65 GW over the period. This is small compared to the power circulating in the loop - about 0.25% of the circulating power. With 0.10% loss - 1.0 GW is required to maintain the loop once it is erected and established. The power needed to establish the loop and maintain it is nuclear, and on the order of 2.5 GW capacity. About the size of Finland's nuclear industry;

http://www.world-nuclear.org/informa...f/finland.aspx

Once everything is in place, and brought to the site, the circulating mass in the system requires at least 50 days to get up to speed. That's about 43 km per day. That's about two 60 meter sections per hour. The circulating power can be used as a fly wheel to store excess power and bleed it off into the maglev track to launch payloads. With a 1.5 GW surplus, it takes about 4.75 hours to recharge after each launch. About five launches per day of 375 metric tons each. 4x the Shuttle Cargo Bay density. This requires 4x the power and forces.

A propellant tank carrying hydrogen and oxygen propellant can carry 1,500 tonnes in the same volume.
The cost of the LHC at CERN was $3.8 billion for 27 km length. This is $141 million per km. Assuming this is a measure of the 2,130 km long system described here, we have a preliminary estimate of $300 billion. 1/20th the cost of the war in Afghanistan, or the Nuclear Arms race.

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/01/us...-trillion.html

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debat...-not-end-well/

Some estimate that thin film inflatable concentrators, operating solar pumped thin disk lasers at 75% efficiency, can produce 22,000 Watts/kg. This translates to 8.25 GW at the 375 tonne level and 33.0 GW at the 1500 tonne level! The important detail here is that by sending a GEO -synchronous satellite of this magnitude above the launch centre, and beaming energy down to the launch centre, with the nuclear power plant serving as backup, launch rates can be increased to about one per hour or greater!

At a production rate of 5 per day, and 8.25 GW. In 21 days - three weeks - all the electrical generation capacity of humanity can be displaced with space based generation.

A 10 meter diameter cabin, with a 60 meter length, provides space for 24 levels. Total cabin area is 4x that of the A380.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVItPJAu_Fk

With 840 passengers on the A380 a similar layout in the cabin described above could carry 3,360 passengers. Launching one per hour at this density, translates to 29.4 million people per year.

Capturing the world's electricity market of 11 TW and generating $0.08 per kWh free cash flow, generates $7.71 trillion per year. This permits construction of three units, and powering them from orbit, provides sufficient power to launch ten flights per hour. This increases the rate of each to 294 million per year, and three units, one in India, another in Ghana, and a third in Guyana. Each Launching ten per hour 882 million people per year can leave Earth!

Photonic thrusters powered by 33.0 GW solar pumped laser satellites in GEO, propel the systems to Mars, where they enter Mars' atmosphere, and land, discharging the astronauts.

http://ykbcorp.com/downloads/Bae_pho...ulation..pd f

The people on board make use of suspended animation capacity, or as NASA says, 'torpor inducing cabin' at their cabin seats using techniques developed by Dr. Mark Roth to help people in trauma;

https://www.nasa.gov/content/torpor-...stasis-to-mars
https://labs.fhcrc.org/roth/
http://www.ted.com/talks/mark_roth_s...on?language=en
http://www.disclose.tv/forum/suspend...er-t16344.html

This reduces the life support requirements, and reduces psychological stress of a long journey. Loading people up with anti-radiation drugs, similar to those developed by the military and by the medical community for those undergoing radiation treatment, is also beneficial.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/5966704/ex-ra...n-worries-away

One of the requirements of Martian settlers is to give sperm and egg samples prior to the trip, so they may be tucked away in a lead lined container during and after the trip. Settlers then see their local doctor to arrange a pregnancy via fertilisation. They can even select their off spring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl68ca3Yzpo

Which manages population growth on the new world.

Now, can the private sector organise $300 billion for a potential $7.71 trillion PER YEAR return? I think it can! The energy futures markets trade trillions of dollar each year. Long shot ventures like Sakhalin Island's development of natural gas, the largest remaining undeveloped gas field in the world;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakhalin-II

took 4 years and over $10 billion to get into production. It then took another $15 billion to expand that production, and its only at 15% of capacity today! Low gas prices from the fracking craze in the USA, and manipulations of the energy markets by the oil majors, have slowed development, but development continues.

Similar developments of alternative gas fields using new technology have also taken place in Asia. Here is one I've been involved with;

http://www.naturalgasasia.com/exxon-...s-in-indonesia
http://www.dointhebrew.in/equipment-...ction-of-coal/

I believe with an appropriately structured programme, it would be possible to build a launcher similar to the one described near the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, near Pradesh India. The cost would be $300 billion and take 6 years. The $50 billion per year would be to assemble the requisite thorium reactors, and other infrastructure and give investors access to a portion of the $7.71 trillion in energy sales going forward.

Once the power satellites are on GEO the revenue generated is used to pay back investors and expand the system. Building a second in Broglio Launch Centre, near Malindi Kenya and a third at the Guiyana Space Centre in French Guiyana.

The system launches a series of power satellites that generate 8.75 GW to start, and rise to 33.00 GW as the system matures. These systems power photonic thrusters which are used to propel 375 metric ton to 1,500 metric ton payloads one way to Mars. At first these are solar power satellites, that operate at 14.00 GW each on Mars. Each station supports 20 million persons on Mars' surface.

After providing adequate power, we next send 900 crew members equipped with 1,125 tonnes of self replicating machinery that mines the Martian surface to create 42 cities connected by 120 maglev lines enclosing 80 triangular areas on Mars. This is known as a Pentakis icosidodecahedron.

Mars' atmosphere is by volume is

Carbon dioxide 95.97% 44 amu
Argon.............. 1.93% 40 amu (1.89% by weight)
Nitrogen.......... 1.89% 28 amu (1.22% by weight)
Oxygen........... 0.146% 32 amu (0.106% by weight)

and masses 25 trillion tonnes. This means Mars has enough nitrogen to pressurise to 100 kilobars and mix with oxygen derived from the breakdown of CO2, to cover 16 million sq km to a depth of 100 meters with an Earth normal atmosphere.

This pressurised surface area when divided among 80 cities creates up to 200,000 sq km per city.

A dome, or collection of domes, totalling 504 km in diameter is possible. These are connected to nearest neighbours by a 1400 km long maglev line allowing quick transport between cities.

Each city when fully built out and populated at the same density as London, (5,100 persons /sq km) has the capacity to house 1.02 billion per city. A total of 80.16 billion persons for the entire planet!

Self replicating machinery when deposited at 80 sites around the planet, permits 11 million people per year to be added per city once all cities are established. This rate of production supports immigration from Earth at the rate described previously.

Today July 2016, the Earth's population is 7.44 billions. In twelve years, when the ability to export 882 million people per year is established, 2028 population will be 8.51 billions. By 2038 Earth's population will have declined to 241 millions whilst Mars' population will have increased to 9.28 billions, 11.6% of the ultimate design capacity of the system described here!

For investors, the revenue increases, from capturing the $7.71 trillion in power sales, to capturing the $70 trillion in all sales (presently made).

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17512040

Increasing real per capita income from today's $10,000 per person to $180,000 per person or $1.67 quadrillion per year! If half the wealth flows to the top 2.6% - those remaining on Earth - the average income on Earth is $835 trillion per year. That's an average of $3.46 million per person per year on Earth, and $90,000 per person per year off world - in investment income. This adds to the $180,000 per person per year, through the sale of labour.

This replicates conditions of very positive economic growth in the USA during the best times in its history, for all of humanity. Just as major infrastructure projects like the great railroads, the interstate highway system, the system of airports, the Panama canal, were built during these epochs, so too will large infrastructure projects to transform entire worlds take place (including repair of the Earth's biosphere from over-population).

At 1.128% growth per year it takes another 192 years or 2230 AD to 'fill' Mars, assuming no emmigration from the Red Planet. However, transfer of populations from Mars to the major asteroids, could easily take place using photonic thrusters powered by solar pumped lasers on orbit around Mars. Transformation of Diemos and Phobos could occur as a test bed for larger projects to transform Ceres, Hygeia, and other major asteroids orbiting just beyond Mars. Development of these asteroids over this 192 year period allows living standards to improve, and population density to fall, as 5,400 Bishop Ring habitats the size of India, are constructed across the asteroid belt.

My friend Keith Loftstrom and I discussed this at length back in the early 2000s at a space conference we both attended at that time. This grew out of an idea other friends of mine, Robert Forward and Marvin Minskey, had, called 'space fountain'.

http://launchloop.com
http://www.orbitalvector.com/Orbital...0Fountains.htm
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2003/...ailroads.shtml
http://slides.launchloop.com//launchloop.pdf
http://www.star-tech-inc.com/papers/...esentation.pdf

Basically, you shoot a magnetic material at high speed through an evacuated tube and arrange a set of electro magnet loops to withdraw momentum from that magnetic material so that it exerts a controlled force on the thing the electromagnets are attached to! In this way, you can build a tower of any height. Lofstrom's idea is to control the trajectory of the magnetic material so that you create a launch trajectory and support a maglev system that accelerates payloads along it.

By controlling the trajectory of the iron stream or other stream of magnetic material particles, the trajectory can be made to point in any direction.

Consider a 3 gee trajectory that reaches escape velocity, 11,190 m/sec. Its easy to see that such a trajectory is 2,128 km long. Construction proceeds at the launch point as follow;

(1) Start by building a launch ring to accelerate masses up to double escape velocity,

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...aunch_ring.jpg

(2) arrange to project the masses straight up through a vacuum tube,
(3) build a cap on the vacuum tube that turns the mass stream downward through a second vacuum tube.
(4) arrange to receive the downward stream, and use it to feed the ground based mass driver.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-ro...e_fountain.svg

(5) An airlock at the base of the two vacuum tube sections, permits the raising of the vacuum section by one length, by increasing the mass flow rate or velocity, or both and;
(6) Construction of an added section, with its own lift coil in the airlock,
(7) Repeat #5 & #6 until the desired 2,128 km length is reached.

Now, the vacuum sections are only required until an altitude of 212 km is reached. After that, the interconnected lift coils, power cables and so forth, roll inside the vacuum jacket supporting it, but not extending it, as the interior is extended.

Each section is connected to the next via a non-supporting U-joint permitting the entire track to flex like a chain.

When the requisite track length is reached, (2,128 km) guidance coils, and gyro control in each section, steer the track to the desired trajectory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_6p-1J551Y

The 'kinetic track' supports a maglev track within the mass stream. This starts inside the vacuum jacket at the ground and ends at the turn at the end of the mass stream used for kinetic support.

Following the 'switch on' ceremony of Project Beta at Harvard, I had the great good fortune to discuss details of this design with Bob and Marvin, as well as Carl Sagan and Paul Horowitz well into the evening following dinner at Harvard's Hasty Pudding Club, with a quick jaunt to Ben & Jerry's Harvard Square Ice Cream shop, and drinks at Paul's house.

Since that time considerable theoretical work has been done on a 12 meter diameter by 60 meter long maglev track, lift and vacuum jacket, section that is at the heart of the airlock -A 10 meter diameter capsule within a 12 meter diameter by 60 meter long vacuum jacket consisting of a bellows spring arrangement allowing it to operate like a flexible straw.

A 60 meter long by 10 meter diameter cargo pod, that carries the same cargo density as the Space Shuttle's cargo bay, lifts 395 metric tons. Assuming only one payload in the gun at a time it takes 380 seconds to reach escape velocity. The power required to do this is 65 GW over the period. This is small compared to the power circulating in the loop - about 0.25% of the circulating power. With 0.10% loss - 1.0 GW is required to maintain the loop once it is erected and established. The power needed to establish the loop and maintain it is nuclear, and on the order of 2.5 GW capacity. About the size of Finland's nuclear industry;

http://www.world-nuclear.org/informa...f/finland.aspx

Once everything is in place, and brought to the site, the circulating mass in the system requires at least 50 days to get up to speed. That's about 43 km per day. That's about two 60 meter sections per hour. The circulating power can be used as a fly wheel to store excess power and bleed it off into the maglev track to launch payloads. With a 1.5 GW surplus, it takes about 4.75 hours to recharge after each launch. About five launches per day of 375 metric tons each. 4x the Shuttle Cargo Bay density. This requires 4x the power and forces.

A propellant tank carrying hydrogen and oxygen propellant can carry 1,500 tonnes in the same volume.
The cost of the LHC at CERN was $3.8 billion for 27 km length. This is $141 million per km. Assuming this is a measure of the 2,130 km long system described here, we have a preliminary estimate of $300 billion. 1/20th the cost of the war in Afghanistan, or the Nuclear Arms race.

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/01/us...-trillion.html

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debat...-not-end-well/

Some estimate that thin film inflatable concentrators, operating solar pumped thin disk lasers at 75% efficiency, can produce 22,000 Watts/kg. This translates to 8.25 GW at the 375 tonne level and 33.0 GW at the 1500 tonne level! The important detail here is that by sending a GEO -synchronous satellite of this magnitude above the launch centre, and beaming energy down to the launch centre, with the nuclear power plant serving as backup, launch rates can be increased to about one per hour or greater!

At a production rate of 5 per day, and 8.25 GW. In 21 days - three weeks - all the electrical generation capacity of humanity can be displaced with space based generation.

A 10 meter diameter cabin, with a 60 meter length, provides space for 24 levels. Total cabin area is 4x that of the A380.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVItPJAu_Fk

With 840 passengers on the A380 a similar layout in the cabin described above could carry 3,360 passengers. Launching one per hour at this density, translates to 29.4 million people per year.

Capturing the world's electricity market of 11 TW and generating $0.08 per kWh free cash flow, generates $7.71 trillion per year. This permits construction of three units, and powering them from orbit, provides sufficient power to launch ten flights per hour. This increases the rate of each to 294 million per year, and three units, one in India, another in Ghana, and a third in Guyana. Each Launching ten per hour 882 million people per year can leave Earth!

Photonic thrusters powered by 33.0 GW solar pumped laser satellites in GEO, propel the systems to Mars, where they enter Mars' atmosphere, and land, discharging the astronauts.

http://ykbcorp.com/downloads/Bae_pho...ulation..pd f

The people on board make use of suspended animation capacity, or as NASA says, 'torpor inducing cabin' at their cabin seats using techniques developed by Dr. Mark Roth to help people in trauma;

https://www.nasa.gov/content/torpor-...stasis-to-mars
https://labs.fhcrc.org/roth/
http://www.ted.com/talks/mark_roth_s...on?language=en
http://www.disclose.tv/forum/suspend...er-t16344.html

This reduces the life support requirements, and reduces psychological stress of a long journey. Loading people up with anti-radiation drugs, similar to those developed by the military and by the medical community for those undergoing radiation treatment, is also beneficial.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/5966704/ex-ra...n-worries-away

One of the requirements of Martian settlers is to give sperm and egg samples prior to the trip, so they may be tucked away in a lead lined container during and after the trip. Settlers then see their local doctor to arrange a pregnancy via fertilisation. They can even select their off spring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl68ca3Yzpo

Which manages population growth on the new world.

Now, can the private sector organise $300 billion for a potential $7.71 trillion PER YEAR return? I think it can! The energy futures markets trade trillions of dollar each year. Long shot ventures like Sakhalin Island's development of natural gas, the largest remaining undeveloped gas field in the world;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakhalin-II

took 4 years and over $10 billion to get into production. It then took another $15 billion to expand that production, and its only at 15% of capacity today! Low gas prices from the fracking craze in the USA, and manipulations of the energy markets by the oil majors, have slowed development, but development continues.

Similar developments of alternative gas fields using new technology have also taken place in Asia. Here is one I've been involved with;

http://www.naturalgasasia.com/exxon-...s-in-indonesia
http://www.dointhebrew.in/equipment-...ction-of-coal/

I believe with an appropriately structured programme, it would be possible to build a launcher similar to the one described near the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, near Pradesh India. The cost would be $300 billion and take 6 years. The $50 billion per year would be to assemble the requisite thorium reactors, and other infrastructure and give investors access to a portion of the $7.71 trillion in energy sales going forward.

Once the power satellites are on GEO the revenue generated is used to pay back investors and expand the system. Building a second in Broglio Launch Centre, near Malindi Kenya and a third at the Guiyana Space Centre in French Guiyana.

The system launches a series of power satellites that generate 8.75 GW to start, and rise to 33.00 GW as the system matures. These systems power photonic thrusters which are used to propel 375 metric ton to 1,500 metric ton payloads one way to Mars. At first these are solar power satellites, that operate at 14.00 GW each on Mars. Each station supports 20 million persons on Mars' surface.

After providing adequate power, we next send 900 crew members equipped with 1,125 tonnes of self replicating machinery that mines the Martian surface to create 80 cities connected by 120 maglev lines enclosing 42 triangular areas on Mars. This is known as a Pentakis icosidodecahedron.

Mars' atmosphere is by volume is

Carbon dioxide 95.97% 44 amu
Argon.............. 1.93% 40 amu (1.89% by weight)
Nitrogen.......... 1.89% 28 amu (1.22% by weight)
Oxygen........... 0.146% 32 amu (0.106% by weight)

and masses 25 trillion tonnes. This means Mars has enough nitrogen to pressurise to 78 kilopascals far higher than the average 600 pascal pressure, and mix that enriched nitrogen with another 23 kilopascals of oxygen derived from the breakdown of CO2, to cover 16 million sq km to a depth of 100 meters with an Earth normal atmosphere!

This pressurised surface area when divided among 80 cities creates up to 200,000 sq km per city.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThRFQ-oOXT0

A dome, or collection of domes, totalling 504 km in diameter is possible. These are connected to nearest neighbours by a 1400 km long maglev line allowing quick transport between cities in 20 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZJuqYk3YYE

Not merely in trains, but in separate magnetic cars the drive right to your door.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrxyr1CjiSM

Each city when fully built out and populated at the same density as London, (5,100 persons /sq km) has the capacity to house 1.02 billion per city. A total of 80.16 billion persons for the entire planet!

Self replicating machinery when deposited at 80 sites around the planet, permits 11 million people per year to be added per city once all cities base infrastructure are established. This rate of production supports immigration from Earth at the rate described previously.

Today July 2016, the Earth's population is 7.44 billions. In twelve years, when the ability to export 882 million people per year is established, 2028 population will be 8.51 billions. If longevity research bears fruit by that time, populations will be even higher.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUyQHvLfO0Q

Even with high rates of growth, by 2038, after ten years of 882 million per year exodus, Earth's population will have declined to 241 millions whilst Mars' population will have increased to 9.28 billions, 11.6% of the ultimate design capacity of the system described here!

Ectogenesis will join genetic selection as a reproductive strategy for families on Mars. This will allow us to control the rate of population growth, even as the death rate declines. So I assume the present 1.128% growth rate will be maintained, despite the transition to these new reproductive technologies.

For future investors, the ability to manage revenue increases off world, first from capturing the $7.71 trillion in today's power sales, and growing to the capture of the $70 trillion of all sales (presently made).

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17512040

and increasing real per capita income without destruction of the Earth's biosphere, from today's $10,000 per person to $180,000 per person over the ten year period from 2028 to 2038. Or $1.67 quadrillion per year! A 37% per year rate of increase! This ends all privation and economic causes of war and terror going forward.

Assuming half the wealth flows to the top 2.6% - those remaining on Earth - the average income on Earth is $835 trillion per year. Divided by 242 million that's an average of $3.46 million per person per year on Earth, and $90,000 per person per year off world - in investment income - divided in half between government expenditure and personal investment income. This adds $45,000 on average to the $180,000 per person per year, through the sale of labour, and rewards innovation and competition in the emerging Martian markets. Replicating the high income model of Singapore - which is one of the most stable nations on Earth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGXhRNStmdE

This replicates conditions of very positive economic growth in the USA during the best times in its history, for all of humanity.

Just as major infrastructure projects like the great railroads, the interstate highway system, the global system of airports, the Panama canal, the Suez canal, were all built during these epochs of great wealth creation, so too will large infrastructure projects that transforms entire worlds in decades, take place (including repair of the Earth's biosphere from over-population once levels are reduced).

At 1.128% growth per year it takes another 192 years or to 2230 AD to 'fill' Mars, assuming no emmigration from the Red Planet. Many of the people alive then, will very likely be alive today!

However, transfer of populations from Mars to the major asteroids, will easily take place using photonic thrusters powered by solar pumped lasers on orbit around Mars. Transformation of Diemos and Phobos could occur as a test bed for larger projects to transform Ceres, Hygeia, and other major asteroids orbiting just beyond Mars.

Development of these asteroids over this 192 year period allows living standards to improve, and population density to fall in the massive biosphere created, as 5,400 Bishop Ring habitats each the size of India, are constructed across the asteroid belt.

Using advanced fusion, laser, and anti-matter propulsion, spacecraft ownership becomes commonplace whilst people learn through the exploration and development of these worlds around Sol, how to explore develop and live on worlds around other stars. Which is our longer term future beyond Sol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH3c1QZzRK4

Updated with slight corrections and clarifications of certain details;

My friend Keith Loftstrom and I discussed this at length back in the early 2000s at a space conference we both attended at that time. This grew out of an idea other friends of mine, Robert Forward and Marvin Minskey, had, called 'space fountain'.

http://launchloop.com
http://www.orbitalvector.com/Orbital...0Fountains.htm
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2003/...ailroads.shtml
http://slides.launchloop.com//launchloop.pdf
http://www.star-tech-inc.com/papers/...esentation.pdf

Basically, you shoot a magnetic material at high speed through an evacuated tube and arrange a set of electro magnet loops to withdraw momentum from that magnetic material so that it exerts a controlled force on the thing the electromagnets are attached to! In this way, you can build a tower of any height. Lofstrom's idea is to control the trajectory of the magnetic material so that you create a launch trajectory and support a maglev system that accelerates payloads along it.

By controlling the trajectory of the iron stream or other stream of magnetic material particles, the trajectory can be made to point in any direction.

Consider a 3 gee trajectory that reaches escape velocity, 11,190 m/sec. Its easy to see that such a trajectory is 2,128 km long. Construction proceeds at the launch point as follow;

(1) Start by building a launch ring to accelerate masses up to double escape velocity,

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...aunch_ring.jpg

(2) arrange to project the masses straight up through a vacuum tube,
(3) build a cap on the vacuum tube that turns the mass stream downward through a second vacuum tube.
(4) arrange to receive the downward stream, and use it to feed the ground based mass driver.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-ro...e_fountain.svg

(5) An airlock at the base of the two vacuum tube sections, permits the raising of the vacuum section by one length, by increasing the mass flow rate or velocity, or both and;
(6) Construction of an added section, with its own lift coil in the airlock,
(7) Repeat #5 & #6 until the desired 2,128 km length is reached.

Now, the vacuum sections are only required until an altitude of 212 km is reached. After that, the interconnected lift coils, power cables and so forth, roll inside the vacuum jacket supporting it, but not extending it, as the interior is extended.

Each section is connected to the next via a non-supporting U-joint permitting the entire track to flex like a chain within the vacuum jacket, which itself is built like a bellows spring, similar to a flexible straw.

When the requisite track length is reached, (2,128 km) guidance coils, and gyro control in each section, steer the track to the desired trajectory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_6p-1J551Y

The 'kinetic track' supports a maglev track within the mass stream. This starts inside the vacuum jacket at the ground and ends at the turn at the end of the mass stream used for kinetic support.

Following the 'switch on' ceremony of Project Beta at Harvard, I had the great good fortune to discuss details of this design with Bob and Marvin, as well as Carl Sagan and Paul Horowitz well into the evening following dinner at Harvard's Hasty Pudding Club, with a quick jaunt to Ben & Jerry's Harvard Square Ice Cream shop, and drinks at Paul's house.

Since that time considerable theoretical work has been done on a 12 meter diameter by 60 meter long maglev track, lift and vacuum jacket, section that is at the heart of the airlock -A 10 meter diameter capsule within a 12 meter diameter by 60 meter long vacuum jacket consisting of a bellows spring arrangement allowing it to operate like a flexible straw.

A 60 meter long by 10 meter diameter cargo pod, that carries the same cargo density as the Space Shuttle's cargo bay, lifts 395 metric tons. Assuming only one payload in the gun at a time it takes 380 seconds to reach escape velocity. The power required to do this is 65 GW over the period. This is small compared to the power circulating in the loop - about 0.25% of the circulating power. With 0.10% loss - 1.0 GW is required to maintain the loop once it is erected and established. The power needed to establish the loop and maintain it is nuclear, and on the order of 2.5 GW capacity. About the size of Finland's nuclear industry;

http://www.world-nuclear.org/informa...f/finland.aspx

Once everything is in place, and brought to the site, the circulating mass in the system requires at least 50 days to get up to speed. That's about 43 km per day. That's about two 60 meter sections per minute loaded for 50 days. This would be quite an exciting time!

The circulating power can be used as a fly wheel to store excess power and bleed it off into the maglev track to launch payloads. With a 1.5 GW surplus, it takes about 4.75 hours to recharge after each launch. About five launches per day of 375 metric tons each. 4x the Shuttle Cargo Bay density.. This requires 4x the power and forces.

A propellant tank carrying hydrogen and oxygen propellant can carry 1,500 tonnes in the same volume.
The cost of the LHC at CERN was $3.8 billion for 27 km length. This is $141 million per km. Assuming this is a measure of the 2,130 km long system described here, we have a preliminary estimate of $300 billion. 1/20th the cost of the war in Afghanistan, or the Nuclear Arms race.

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/01/us...-trillion.html

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debat...-not-end-well/

Some estimate that thin film inflatable concentrators, operating solar pumped thin disk lasers at 75% efficiency, can produce 22,000 Watts/kg. This translates to 8.25 GW at the 375 tonne level and 33.0 GW at the 1500 tonne level! The important detail here is that by sending a GEO -synchronous satellite of this magnitude above the launch centre, and beaming energy down to the launch centre, with the nuclear power plant serving as backup, launch rates can be increased to about one per hour or greater!

At a production rate of 5 per day, and 8.25 GW. In 21 days - three weeks - all the electrical generation capacity of humanity can be displaced with space based generation.

A 10 meter diameter cabin, with a 60 meter length, provides space for 24 levels. Total cabin area is 4x that of the A380.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVItPJAu_Fk

With 840 passengers on the A380 a similar layout in the cabin described above could carry 3,360 passengers. Launching one per hour at this density, translates to 29.4 million people per year.

Capturing the world's electricity market of 11 TW and generating $0.08 per kWh free cash flow, generates $7.71 trillion per year. This permits construction of three units, and powering them from orbit, provides sufficient power to launch ten flights per hour. This increases the rate of each to 294 million per year, and three units, one in India, another in Ghana, and a third in Guyana. Each Launching ten per hour 882 million people per year can leave Earth!

Photonic thrusters powered by 33.0 GW solar pumped laser satellites in GEO, propel the systems to Mars, where they enter Mars' atmosphere, and land, discharging the astronauts.

http://ykbcorp.com/downloads/Bae_pho...ulation..pd f

The people on board make use of suspended animation capacity, or as NASA says, 'torpor inducing cabin' at their cabin seats using techniques developed by Dr. Mark Roth to help people in trauma;

https://www.nasa.gov/content/torpor-...stasis-to-mars
https://labs.fhcrc.org/roth/
http://www.ted.com/talks/mark_roth_s...on?language=en
http://www.disclose.tv/forum/suspend...er-t16344.html

This reduces the life support requirements, and reduces psychological stress of a long journey. Loading people up with anti-radiation drugs, similar to those developed by the military and by the medical community for those undergoing radiation treatment, is also beneficial.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/5966704/ex-ra...n-worries-away

One of the requirements of Martian settlers is to give sperm and egg samples prior to the trip, so they may be tucked away in a lead lined container during and after the trip. Settlers then see their local doctor to arrange a pregnancy via fertilisation. They can even select their off spring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl68ca3Yzpo

Which manages population growth on the new world.

Now, can the private sector organise $300 billion for a potential $7.71 trillion PER YEAR return? I think it can! The energy futures markets trade trillions of dollar each year. Long shot ventures like Sakhalin Island's development of natural gas, the largest remaining undeveloped gas field in the world;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakhalin-II

took 4 years and over $10 billion to get into production. It then took another $15 billion to expand that production, and its only at 15% of capacity today! Low gas prices from the fracking craze in the USA, and manipulations of the energy markets by the oil majors, have slowed development, but development continues.

Similar developments of alternative gas fields using new technology have also taken place in Asia. Here is one I've been involved with;

http://www.naturalgasasia.com/exxon-...s-in-indonesia
http://www.dointhebrew.in/equipment-...ction-of-coal/

I believe with an appropriately structured programme, it would be possible to build a launcher similar to the one described near the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, near Pradesh India. The cost would be $300 billion and take 6 years. The $50 billion per year would be to assemble the requisite thorium reactors, and other infrastructure and give investors access to a portion of the $7.71 trillion in energy sales going forward.

Once the power satellites are on GEO the revenue generated is used to pay back investors and expand the system. Building a second in Broglio Launch Centre, near Malindi Kenya and a third at the Guiyana Space Centre in French Guiyana.

The system launches a series of power satellites that generate 8.75 GW to start, and rise to 33.00 GW as the system matures. These systems power photonic thrusters which are used to propel 375 metric ton to 1,500 metric ton payloads one way to Mars. At first these are solar power satellites, that operate at 14.00 GW each on Mars. Each station supports 20 million persons on Mars' surface.

After providing adequate power, we next send 900 crew members equipped with 1,125 tonnes of self replicating machinery that mines the Martian surface to create 80 cities connected by 120 maglev lines enclosing 42 triangular areas on Mars. This is known as a Pentakis icosidodecahedron.

Mars' atmosphere is by volume is

Carbon dioxide 95.97% 44 amu
Argon.............. 1.93% 40 amu (1.89% by weight)
Nitrogen.......... 1.89% 28 amu (1.22% by weight)
Oxygen........... 0.146% 32 amu (0.106% by weight)

and masses 25 trillion tonnes. This means Mars has enough nitrogen to pressurise to 78 kilopascals far higher than the average 600 pascal pressure, and mix that enriched nitrogen with another 23 kilopascals of oxygen derived from the breakdown of CO2, to cover 16 million sq km to a depth of 100 meters with an Earth normal atmosphere!

This pressurised surface area when divided among 80 cities creates up to 200,000 sq km per city.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThRFQ-oOXT0

A dome, or collection of domes, totalling 504 km in diameter is possible. These are connected to nearest neighbours by a 1400 km long maglev line allowing quick transport between cities in 20 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZJuqYk3YYE

Not merely in trains, but in separate magnetic cars the drive right to your door.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrxyr1CjiSM

Each city when fully built out and populated at the same density as London, (5,100 persons /sq km) has the capacity to house 1.02 billion per city. A total of 80.16 billion persons for the entire planet!

Self replicating machinery when deposited at 80 sites around the planet, permits 11 million people per year to be added per city once all cities base infrastructure are established. This rate of production supports immigration from Earth at the rate described previously.

Today July 2016, the Earth's population is 7.44 billions. In twelve years, when the ability to export 882 million people per year is established, 2028 population will be 8.51 billions. If longevity research bears fruit by that time, populations will be even higher.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUyQHvLfO0Q

Even with high rates of growth, by 2038, after ten years of 882 million per year exodus, Earth's population will have declined to 241 millions whilst Mars' population will have increased to 9.28 billions, 11.6% of the ultimate design capacity of the system described here!

Ectogenesis will join genetic selection as a reproductive strategy for families on Mars. This will allow us to control the rate of population growth, even as the death rate declines. So I assume the present 1.128% growth rate will be maintained, despite the transition to these new reproductive technologies.

For future investors, the ability to manage revenue increases off world, first from capturing the $7.71 trillion in today's power sales, and growing to the capture of the $70 trillion of all sales (presently made).

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17512040

and increasing real per capita income without destruction of the Earth's biosphere, from today's $10,000 per person to $180,000 per person over the ten year period from 2028 to 2038. Or $1.67 quadrillion per year! A 37% per year rate of increase! This ends all privation and economic causes of war and terror going forward.

Assuming half the wealth flows to the top 2.6% - those remaining on Earth - the average income on Earth is $835 trillion per year. Divided by 242 million that's an average of $3.46 million per person per year on Earth, and $90,000 per person per year off world - in investment income - divided in half between government expenditure and personal investment income. This adds $45,000 on average to the $180,000 per person per year, through the sale of labour, and rewards innovation and competition in the emerging Martian markets. Replicating the high income model of Singapore - which is one of the most stable nations on Earth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGXhRNStmdE

This replicates conditions of very positive economic growth in the USA during the best times in its history, for all of humanity.

Just as major infrastructure projects like the great railroads, the interstate highway system, the global system of airports, the Panama canal, the Suez canal, were all built during these epochs of great wealth creation, so too will large infrastructure projects that transforms entire worlds in decades, take place (including repair of the Earth's biosphere from over-population once levels are reduced).

At 1.128% growth per year it takes another 192 years or to 2230 AD to 'fill' Mars, assuming no emmigration from the Red Planet. Many of the people alive then, will very likely be alive today!

However, transfer of populations from Mars to the major asteroids, will easily take place using photonic thrusters powered by solar pumped lasers on orbit around Mars. Transformation of Diemos and Phobos could occur as a test bed for larger projects to transform Ceres, Hygeia, and other major asteroids orbiting just beyond Mars.

Development of these asteroids over this 192 year period allows living standards to improve, and population density to fall in the massive biosphere created, as 5,400 Bishop Ring habitats each the size of India, are constructed across the asteroid belt.

Using advanced fusion, laser, and anti-matter propulsion, spacecraft ownership becomes commonplace whilst people learn through the exploration and development of these worlds around Sol, how to explore develop and live on worlds around other stars. Which is our longer term future beyond Sol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH3c1QZzRK4