Difficulties with mass driver technology

Forum: SSI-List
Thread: Difficulties with mass driver technology

# 14760 byhollroa@... on May 9, 2001, 9:45 a.m.
Member since 2022-08-22

In most of the lunar resource utilisation projects that I have heard about, a
mass driver is used to deliver material to L2. Each payload must rendezvous with
a mass catcher in L2. It must do this with exceptional accuracy. If the payload
misses the catcher by 1 metre, it has missed. Unless our lunar mass driver is
super accurate, we must find a way of guiding the inert payloads into the mass
catcher. How can this be done without a complex guidance system in each payload?

Tony