Alternative launch concepts

Air launch, rotary launch, mass drivers and tethers, assessed against the physics.

Scope

• Air launch and its actual payload benefit
• Rotational and centrifugal launch
• Electromagnetic mass drivers
• Space elevators, tethers and momentum exchange
• The constraint that limits each concept

Notes

Nothing written here yet. Working notes go in Research and Learning Lab; anything that becomes durable is promoted onto this page.

References

To be added as the topic is worked through.