A mass driver on the lunar surface is going to require a lot of
power delivered in a very short period. I've seen references to
capacitors being used to unleash that power.
would feed the capacitors until they stored enough energy for the
mass driver launch. This would prevent a rapid turnover in launches.
Making a trade-off by having a larger power system supplying the
current required for the mass driver launch would insure that a
launch could be taking place in a continuous cycle. This would
eliminate the need for capacitors.
Is this correct? OR am I overlooking something?
Just to clarify: if a launch lasting one second required 20MW, then
a power system supplying 20MW would be able to launch a payload
every second. A system with capacitors that output 1MW would have to
charge for 20 seconds before every launch.
Just wanted to make sure I understood this properly.
>
> A mass driver on the lunar surface is going to require a lot of
> power delivered in a very short period. I've seen references to
> capacitors being used to unleash that power.
>
> For capacitors to be used, my understanding is that the power system
> would feed the capacitors until they stored enough energy for the
> mass driver launch. This would prevent a rapid turnover in launches.
>
> Making a trade-off by having a larger power system supplying the
> current required for the mass driver launch would insure that a
> launch could be taking place in a continuous cycle. This would
> eliminate the need for capacitors.
>
> Is this correct? OR am I overlooking something?
>
> Just to clarify: if a launch lasting one second required 20MW, then
> a power system supplying 20MW would be able to launch a payload
> every second. A system with capacitors that output 1MW would have to
> charge for 20 seconds before every launch.
>
> Just wanted to make sure I understood this properly.