For us to really have a chance at exploring space we need to be able to get enough materials up there to do all the things we dream about. Right now it costs around $4,500 per pound of cargo, 10x that to send passengers. One of the most talked about ways to do so is by building a space elevator, but the technology to manufacture cables with enough strength to withstand those forces are not invented yet. But there is one proposed solution that could get passengers and cargo to space for $45 per pound, 99% less than it currently costs.

I am talking about the Startram Project.

Using technology like the maglev train, just instead of travelling to another city you would travel into space. It is the brainchild of Dr. James Powell, co-inventor of superconducting maglev trains, and Dr. George Maise, an aerospace engineer. The best part? We could do it with existing technology!

Here's how it works.

A tube would be built and held in the air using magnetically suspended superconducting cables and high strength structural tethers. To achieve launch velocity the 1,000 mile long tube would be a vacuum and would launch the spacecraft out of the tube at an altitude of 12 miles, the speed it will be going at is 20,000mph - enough to carry it into a low orbit. To stop air from entering the vacuum tube magneto hydrodynamic pumps (MHD) would continuously expel gasses, maintaining a near-vacuum at all times. Basically a mass driver launch into space.

Sounds complicated right? Let me break it down a bit.

If you push enough electric current through two separate conductors they will push apart from each other. So the vacuum tube would be placed on top of another cable, and enough current ran through them to make them push each other apart, each meter of cable would suspend 4 tons of tube. High strength cables would hold the two in check, and the cables would be anchored to the ground.

So that is how the whole thing is held up, now to achieve launch speed the craft would have to be going 5.6 miles per second. Against the atmosphere at sea level the heat and friction generated while traveling at that speed would be too great, like hitting a concrete wall at 40mph in a car. But if it exited the tube at a height of 12 miles, then it could coast up to space with the built up momentum.

Now to stop air from entering the tube the Startram would use an ‘MHD Window’, a technology already in use, to expel the air. Think of this as a plasma shield to stops air from passing into it and keeps the tube at nearly 100% vacuum while it is operating.

Now just add in the same maglev technology used on the ground and you got yourself a space train!
Still sound too far-fetched? Independent Sandia National Laboratories was told to find any flaw in the plan so as to ‘murder it’. They went over every part of the proposal looking for any reason it would not work and ended up declaring it sound and achievable. It is estimated that a cargo only version could be built in 10 years at a cost of $20 billion. A version for passengers would take 20 years to build and cost $67 billion.

The Startram crafts would be reuseable and estimates of the cost of energy to send a kilogram to orbit run below $1. Another way to put it is that a kilogram of cargo could be brought into space at a cost of around 2 liters of fuel, the current rockets take at least 10x that much and are one time use (SpaceX is still working on it guys). Pollution would also be minimal compared to rockets.

Unfortunately this idea has not gained any traction since it was proposed in 2001.

I believe our current approach to spaceflight is like having cargo container ships unload far off shore while smaller craft carry the containers in one by one, it is easy and cheap for the short term. But it is much better to build a port so that the whole operation can be done more efficiently, but a port is an expensive project. No government wants to carry the cost of this.

It is a shame, because when something becomes achievable to more people then advancements follow. Once the cost of going into space is within reach of many regular people then you will see the race to space finally begin.

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Sources

All pictures are from the Startram Project website

• The Startram Project
• The Startram Maglev Train Could Make Space Travel Cheaper & More Efficient
• A Train to Space: All Aboard the 20,000-Mile-Per-Hour Low-Earth-Orbit Express