Launching Ramp

what would be the acceleration curve? A shot like a canon or a gradual
increase like todays rockets?

Doesnt do much good for humans to be shot out of acanon :-)

You may consider Marshall Savage idea of using a gentle sloping mountain as
a guide for a tunnel to use maglevs to impulse a vehicle to escape
velocity. I believe he went so far as to suggest the evacuation of air from
the tube using a kind of seal at the upper end so that air resistence would
be elimnated until the escape into the atmosphere at the higher elevations
of the mountain. I beleive he had suggested mount Kilamanjaro in Africa;
power for the enterprise to be generated by sea OTEC's.

(OTEC- a kind of temperature engine utilizing differences between tropical
warm waters and deep cold ocean)

The aceleration was the key, as was the large OTEC generator.

It would seem easier to have a dedicated lake to use force of dropping water
for power. Of course you would need to calculate the amount of oomph needed
depending on the mass of the vehicle, yes? A bigger vehicle requiring more
water volume to produce push....yes?

very interesting concept still.

bob
SLF

> Hello
>
> This is what I hoped for, people discussing how to do it. More food for
> thought. If the water column falls 3200 feet, you can accelerate the pulse
to
> escape velocity.
>
> I have also hypothesized a lower cost nav system for launch. You use GPS
to
> create an invisible tunnel into orbit defined as a series of rectangles
the
> payload aims for. As it pierces each 'box'" it looks for the next one, and
so