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Launch loop (not to scale). The red marked line is the moving loop itself, blue lines are stationary cables. A launch loop, or Lofstrom loop, is a proposed system for launching objects into orbit using a moving cable-like system situated inside a sheath attached to the Earth at two ends and suspended above the atmosphere in the middle.
Keith Lofstrom (born 1953 in Portland, Oregon) [1] is an American electrical engineer.He has a BSEE and MSEE from University of California, Berkeley. [2] He is more widely known in the space advocacy community for a ground-based space launcher design, the Launch Loop, [3] [4] [5] for which he has been credited by name in several works of science fiction.
A launch loop or Lofstrom loop is a design for a belt-based maglev orbital launch system that would be around 2000 km long and maintained at an altitude of up to 80 kilometres (50 mi). Vehicles weighing 5 metric tons would be electromagnetically accelerated on top of the cable which forms an acceleration track, from which they would be ...
The Launch Loop: 80 km (50 mi) 1981 Suspended Maglev track: Space tourism, space exploration, and space colonization. undetermined undetermined The launch loop is a concept that has been proposed for the purposes of orbital launch. [12] N/A Scaled-down space elevator 20 km (12 mi) 2009 Pneumatic tower
A launch loop (or Lofstrom loop) is a dynamically supported 2000 km long iron loop that projects up in an arc to 80 km that is ridden by maglev cars while achieving orbital velocity. StarTram Generation 2 is a maglev launch track extending from the ground to above 96% of the atmosphere's mass, supported by magnetic levitation.
The Lofstrom launch loop, space elevator, or other alternative launch systems hypothetically provide excellent solutions; in the case of the space elevator, existing carbon nanotubes composites, with the possible exception of Colossal carbon tubes, do not yet have sufficient tensile strength. All chemical rocket designs are extremely ...
Based on a diagram in Keith Lofstrom's 1985 paper, released under the GFDL at en:Image:LaunchLoop.PNG. Converted to SVG by User:Bryan Derksen and with a public-domain compass rose (from Image:Компас.svg by User:Obradovic Goran) added. Author: Keith Lofstrom: Permission (Reusing this file)
Yep, I agree. A space elevator would be an excellent solution for the moon...but then you might want to advance another step and build a Skyhook (structure)...or an Orbital ring...or a Space fountain...or a Lofstrom loop. There are many, many other ideas that become possible without an atmosphere and with sufficiently strong materials.