Electromagnetic Space Launch Considerations

The market for microsatellite and nanosatellite launch has grown appreciably over the last few years with commercial, military, and research applications involved to an increasing extent. A significant growth area has been the development of autonomous swarms in which multiple small satellites interact cooperatively as systems to provide interrelationships and redundancy. Because the options for launching small satellites are restricted, the promise afforded by these new developments is also limited. Large conventional rocket boosters are available only from a few nations and launch opportunities are, therefore, limited not only by cost but also by launcher availability and launch window opportunities. Several commercial organizations (SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Bigalow Aerospace, SpaceDev, and so) are attempting to address this need but continue to use conventional rocket approaches, albeit sometimes in innovative ways. In this paper, the opportunities for electromagnetic launch to provide an alternative that could have lower cost and increased availability from a dedicated facility are discussed.