StarTram

Published on 19 May 2022. Written by Bheru Singh

About the project

The new generation launching system StarTram is a proposal for a maglev space launch system. The initial Generation 1 facility would be cargo only, launching from a mountain peak at an altitude of 3 to 7 kilometres with an evacuated tube staying at local surface level; it has been claimed that about 150,000 tons could be lifted to orbit annually.

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An advanced technology is required Generation 2 system for passengers with a longer track instead gradually curving up at its end to the thinner air at 22 kilometres (14 mi) altitude, supported by magnetic levitation, reducing g-forces when each capsule transitions from the vacuum tube to the atmosphere.

James R. Powell invented the superconducting maglev concept in the 1960s with a colleague, Gordon Danby, also at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

A StarTram design was first published in a 2001 paper making reference to a 1994 paper on MagLifter. The MagLifter concept involved maglev launch assist for a few hundred m/s with a short track, 90% projected efficiency.

The Gen-1 system proposes to accelerate unmanned craft at 30g through a 130-kilometer long tunnel using plasma window preventing vacuum loss at exit's of mechanical shutter, evacuated of air with an MHD pump

After exiting the launch tube, the heating rate of nose shape is around 30 kW/cm2 at the stagnation point, but drops below 10 kW/cm2 within a few seconds.

Transpiration water cooling is planned consuming up to 100 liters/m2 of water/second. The tunnel tube has no superconductors, no cryogenic cooling requirements, and none of it is at higher elevation than the local ground surface.

The Gen-2 StarTram is used for reusable manned capsules, intended to be low g-force, 2 to 3 g acceleration in the launch tube and an elevated exit at such high altitude that peak aerodynamic deceleration becomes 1g

The Gen-2 system requires 1,000 to 1,500 kilometres length for such a slow acceleration. An alternative, Gen-1.5, would launch passenger spacecraft at 4 kilometres per second from a mountaintop at around 6000 meters above sea level from 270 km tunnel accelerating at 3g

Kit required to develop StarTram:

• Magnets
• Track
• Railway
• Electricity
• Tachometer

Technologies you will learn by working on StarTram:

• Magnet
• Maglev Systems
• Locomotive
• Polarity
• Aerodynamics

Any Questions?