Yet another magnetic launcher

From: "Ed Minchau"
To:
Sent: tera-feira, 6 de maro de 2001 17:10
Subject: [spacesettlers] Re: Yet another magnetic launcher

[snikt]
Thia is just the Meisner Effect writ large. And it's not a free
lunch either; the energy required to boost your superconducting ring
comes from the Earth's magnetic field, and using this system would
simply lower the earth's field slightly, possibly by slightly cooling
the core.

I can't see how the magnetic ship could suck energy from the magnetosphere
during launch; as far as I imagined it, energy would come from generators
(powered by basically anything, from chemical fuels to atomic reactors)
inside the ship. Once the ship is moving in free fall in space, however, it
could convert its kinetic energy in electricity by interacting again with
the magnetosphere. After a slingshot maneuver with the Moon, it could for
example move close to Earth again and use a "magnetic breaking" maneuver to
reduce its velocity and achieve orbit. During land, it could also make such
kind of energy recovery. It would be a very economical vehicle...

One thought: stability could be improved if the superconducting ring
was spinning, as it would act as a gyro.

Indeed! Thanks, I had not thought about this simple and obvious solution. As
a matter of fact, it is used in those toys where a rotating magnet levitates
above a magnetic base...

(Oh, my God... Besides being disk shaped, now the ship has a rotating ring
around it. This is *really* becoming embarrassingly similar to an UFO! ;-)

[snikt]
:) ed

:) lcio