Lunar Dragger

>Take a look at my article on the "Lunar Dragger" :-

Arrrrggh... I had thought of posting almost the exact same idea last week.
(Although with zero depth consideration on my part. It was at the concept
of 'couldn't we drag a long tether or something and use that for
deceleration?'). Coming up with 'something new under the sun' is not
trivial...

Glad to see you've done some serious thought on it.

For reducing vertical velocity I had considered launching 'shock proof'
cargo at the moons surface (say, large blocks of a elements useful for
silicon manufacture, etc.). Thus we aren't wasting mass on fuel.

I was also thinking of using the 'launch mass at the moon' for horizontal
velocity reduction. (We fly low, and aim at mountains...)

For horizontal or vertical velocity reduction I would suggest two mass
launches simultaneously with the angles forming a V. (This way the mass
would not be directly below the launch vehicle for vertical deceleration,
and the masses could be aimed at 'peaks' on the moon for horizontal
deceleration).

Since the mass launcher would probably use less space than equivalent
rockets. And we get to recover all of our reaction mass (aside from that
expended to power the electromagnetic launcher and needed for reorienting
the craft..). We have almost no loss of useful mass.

Tom M.
TomM@...