The Techno-Economic Viability of Actively Supported Structures for Terrestrial Transit and Space Launch

A Tethered Ring is a dynamic structure that can cost-effectively support carbon-neutral transportation and space launch infrastructure at high altitudes. The capital cost per available seat kilometer, amortized over 20 years, is estimated to be 0.00121 USD/km. The levelized cost-per-kg launched to nearby planets, moons, and asteroids is estimated at 12.45 USD/kg when amortized over 1.5 million metric tons of payload launched on interplanetary trajectories. A Tethered Ring is constructed exclusively with materials that are mass-produced today and it makes use of technologies and physics that are widely used in other industries and well understood from an engineering standpoint. It generates one component of its lifting force using cables called “tethers” and another component by using a fast-moving magnetically confined mass stream within an evacuated tube. The architecture enables the mass-stream to be confined with minimal magnetic friction, giving it a significant operating cost advantage over earlier concepts such as orbital rings, space cables, and launch loops.