Space applications for contactless coilguns

Two space applications are considered for (electrically) contactless coilguns: launch of small satellites into low-Earth orbit, and launch of lunar liquid oxygen (LLOX) from the Moon to the stationary Lagrangian point L2. For the Earth-to-orbit application, the baseline conceptual design consists of a 960-m-long gun sited in a tunnel at 25 degrees inclination. The gun launches an 1820-kg package that includes a 100-kg satellite and a 650-kg boost rocket for orbital insertion. For the lunar application, the launcher is 200 m long. A 100-kg load of LLOX is packaged in a 10-kg fiber-wrapped tank, accelerated at 2 kgees in an aluminum bucket (armature), and launched at 2.33 km/s at 30-min intervals. The canisters arrive at L2 2.97 days later and are captured by robotic tugs that deliver them to a fuel depot. The total mass of LLOX delivered per year is 867 Mg (metric tons).<
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