Value chain · CLM-1371
In plain terms
A 1977 NASA design study planned a 10 km electromagnetic track on the Moon to fling small blocks of lunar rock into space at 2.4 km/s, about a million tonnes a year, as raw material for a space colony and the solar power satellites it would build.
The claim as recorded
NASA SP-413 (1977) baselines a lunar mass launcher that accelerates five 10-kg payloads a second to 2400 m/s, at 30 g over 10 km of track, and launches 1.1 Mt/yr at a 70 per cent duty cycle. Two complete launchers are specified so that the duty cycle holds through the lunar night. The launcher is listed at 4,000 t of Earth-supplied mass and 192 MW of lunar-base power, and the material is aimed at a catcher at L2 for the colony's industry, including solar power stations.
Scope and limits
A 1975 summer-study design, never built or tested at scale. The same report gives lunar escape velocity as 2370 m/s on PDF p.95 (Appendix K). It also states the 10-year delivery both as "10 million tonnes" (PDF p.95) and as "11Xl06 t" (text layer, PDF p.146, printed p.129). The 192 MW against 144 MW kinetic implies about 75 per cent conversion efficiency; that is drafter arithmetic, not a stated figure.
What it assumes
Superconducting bucket magnets and a linear synchronous motor work at this scale; launch velocity errors held within 10^-4 m/s along the flight path and 10^-3 m/s crosswise, as the page requires.
Where it comes from
PDF p.124 (printed p.107): "Each second the mass launcher accelerates five 10-kg masses of lunar material to lunar escape velocity of 2400 m/s"; "The buckets are accelerated at 30 g over 10 km by a linear electric motor running the length of the track"; the throughput sentence reads "this system can launch I. 1 Mt/yr" in the text layer (OCR "I. 1" for 1.1) after a 70 percent duty-cycle clause; "two complete mass launchers are necessary"; Table 5-14 lists Launcher 4,000 t and Table 5-15 lists Launcher 192 MW on the same page. PDF p.77 (printed p.60): the colonists "ship a million tonnes per year by electromagnetic mass launcher". PDF p.143 (printed p.126): "Acceleration is at 288 m/s2 along l O km of track" (text layer; "l O" is OCR for 10). Arithmetic (drafter): v = sqrt(2 x 288 x 10,000) = 2400 m/s, matching; 30 g = 294 m/s2 gives 2425 m/s, the same within rounding; 5 x 10 kg/s = 50 kg/s, x 0.7 x 31,557,600 s/yr = 1.10E9 kg = 1.1 Mt/yr, matching; kinetic power 0.5 x 50 x 2400^2 = 144 MW, against 192 MW listed.
Basis: study design figures; launch speed in m/s, track length in km, throughput in Mt/yr at a stated duty cycle
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-015 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1371
CLM-1371, Energy Aperture, as of 1977.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.