NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and PRT Advanced Maglev System have built a track to test whether a rocket-powered spacecraft could be given a low-cost, high speed kick-start into the atmosphere before the craft's engines are ignited.
The 15m (50ft)-long development is an electrically powered advanced linear induction motor-powered magnetic levitation track. The track, at the NASA centre's site in Huntsville, Alabama, will demonstrate technologies that could dramatically reduce the cost of getting into space. A model spaceplane will be levitated and accelerated along the track during tests, reaching 100km/h (62mph) in 1s at the flip of a switch. A 120m-long track is planned next.
Scientists hope that a magnetically levitated spacecraft would be accelerated to 960km/h and propelled into the air to start a climb to orbit which would eventually be powered by on-board rocket engines. This would reduce the cost of reaching space to a few hundred dollars per kg compared with today's $5,000 per kg.
Source: Flight International
