NASA has been researching a way to launch a spacecraft horizontally down an electrified track or gas-powered sled and into space, reaching speeds of Mach 10. The craft would then return to land on a runway near the launch site.
This rail launcher, known Advanced Space Launch System, is one of a few new launch systems a team of engineers from Kennedy Space Center and several other NASA centers are considering that would utilize existing cutting-edge technologies to offer the space agency a next generation launcher to the stars, NASA claims.
Nothing in the rail design requires new technology to be developed, but the system relies on several existing technologies to become more advanced, said NASA’s Stan Starr, branch chief of the Applied Physics Laboratory at the Kennedy facility. The space center would need to build a launch test bed, potentially in a two-mile long area parallel to the crawlerway leading to the current Launch Pad 39A.
Starr noted that electric tracks catapult rollercoaster riders every day at theme parks, but those tracks only reach speeds of around 60 mph – enough to thrill riders, but not nearly fast enough to launch something into space. The launcher would need to reach at least 10 times that speed over the course of two miles in Starr’s proposal.
For now, the engineers have proposed a 10-year plan that would start with launching a drone like those the Air Force uses, NASA said. More advanced models would follow until they are ready to build one that can launch a small satellite into orbit.
A rail launcher study using gas propulsion already is also in progress, but the team is applying for funding under several areas, including NASA’s push for technology innovation and the engineers know it may not come to pass. The effort is worth it, however, since there is a chance at revolutionizing launches, according to NASA.
In the example NASA offered wedge-shaped aircraft with scramjets would lift the craft to the upper reaches of the atmosphere where a small payload canister or capsule similar to a rocket’s second stage would fire off the back of the aircraft and into orbit.
NASA said as far as the aircraft that would launch on the rail, there already are real-world tests such as the X-43A, X-51 or NASA’s Hyper-X which have shown that scramjets do work.
NASA engineers also envisioned an number of spinoffs from developing the rail technology, such as systems to make more efficient commuter rail systems and better batteries for cars and trucks.