Coil guns vs. mass drivers

--- In spacesettlers@egroups.com, "Tom Tucker (Olympia)"
wrote:
> Mike,
>
> A magnetically suspended payload propelled via a rail using a
> linear motor has to work if the rail is of sufficient length and if
> the payload is not too heavy for the linear motor. I predict that
> this will be the primary mode of launching from the moon.

The argument that the pessimists were making to me was that above a
certain speed, an accelerating coil would not be able to switch on
and off fast enough to contribute any further acceleration. That no
matter to what extent you extended the length of the accelerator, you
wouldn't get any further acceleration regardless.

But like I said in my article, I'm skeptical, if for no other reason
than the implication that Prof. Gerard O'Neill, who was with
Princeton's Institute of Advanced Study, absent-mindedly neglected a
principle of electricity which I learned in my first or second year
of college.

Regards,
Mike Combs