/sci/ - Science & Math

>>11824200
Nice PROOONT.

>>11824210
Cygnus looks like it was originally designed to launch in a spaceplane's cargo bay or out of a mass driver, but they built a shitty half Ukrainian half SRB booster for it when the Shuttle died and Kistler imploded. I imagine a bigger Cygnus as the basis of the 4ASS Yeet Train 50t Standard Module.

>>11798742
>>11798924
Goddamn anons do you think this will happen? I would actually have hope for Artemis if that happened.

>>11763249
Martian Mass Driver
>~300km long up the western slope of Olympus Mons
>can accelerate a 50t payload of cargo or passengers to Martian escape velocity at 4G
>takes 10GW of nuclear reactors or solar to power
>does NOT require superconductors

The key partner technology for this would be the Plasma Magnet Drive - a smallish cylinder made of two pairs of saddle coils that let you interact with the solar sail (when rotating) or aerocapture (when fixed) by running current through it - a magsail without the kilometers of superconducting wire. It gives you enough anti-sunward delta-V to reach the gas giants, so you just need enough regular propellant to slow down, orbit a moon or asteroid, and then escape back to Mars. Conversely, it lets you get all the way back to Earth via aerocapture and reentry with no other propellant but some RCS thrusters.

https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2017/12/29/the-plasma-magnet-drive-a-simple-cheap-drive-for-the-solar-system-and-beyond/

The end result of this system is the ability to fling Cygnus style tin cans everywhere from Earth to Neptune limited only by Hohmann transfer windows, or to trade escape velocity for more mass and build monster ships in Low Mars Orbit for a pittance of launch costs. If you build particle beam "lighthouses" in orbit around the gas giants (possibly at their Solar L1s for ease of navigation) you can use the plasma magnets to brake, and then you only need enough propellant for breaking orbit to Trans-Mars Injection for the way home.

In short, the Mars Mass Driver is the key to the entire solar system if it gets built before torch drives become available to put on private sector starships.