Trains in Spaaaaccee!

[kodemunkey]

This is Startram, a proposed launch system that would use magnetic levitation trains, a 1000-mile tunnel, and a superconducting cable to reach low Earth orbit. Amazingly, we already have the technology to do it...at far less than the cost of rockets.

http://io9.com/5892333/we-already-have-the-technology-to-send-trains-into-space-at-a-fraction-of-the-cost-of-rockets

Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcs4klrjlwE

[Geoff]

There were some designs done in the 1970s (I think) by the Space Studies Institute about using magnetic levitation technology to shoot material from the lunar surface into orbit where it would be collected and used for various projects. I'll dig around and see if I have any of the reports.

[Dynamo Duck]

This looks like quite a project and it would be brilliant if it worked. Where do they propose to site this train though? It would need to be somewhere where its not going to be affected by weather on the earths surface. If it did get damaged because of a storm, theres going to be a lot of debris falling onto the ground.

[kodemunkey]

I think i saw someone mentioning Antarctica.

[Geoff]

Here's the StarTram Resource page:

StarTram Resources

[kodemunkey]

awesome, thanks geoff.