A Novel Electromagnetic Launching Assisted Bore Ram Accelerator and its Potential Applications

Abstract

A novel launching method, the EML assisted bore ram accelerator, is presented to launch the payload. It will accelerate the payload as fast as possible, while keeping the overload acceptable. First of all, the payload is launched by EML to achieve the speed of 800~1500m/s. Then, the ram accelerator increases the velocity of payload to a higher one, greater than 2000m/s. The proposed launching method can be implemented very flexibly, both vertical launching and oblique launching can be adopted. Moreover, it can be set up based on land-based, and ship-based. Here, we discuss on the solution which launching a 40kg payload to about 120km sub-orbit with the proposed method. This new launching mode can be used to study the space science, providing a reusable, affordable, safe and reliable method to exploit the terrestrial space.