Post by Robert DeVries on Feb 18, 2018 22:26:23 GMT -5
Loftstrom Launch Loop
A Loftstrom launch loop is a method of surface-to-space transition popular in Akkalah for launching objects into space orbit using a moving cable-like system situated inside a sheath attached to the planet at two ends and suspended above the atmosphere in the middle. The design concept was published by Keith Lofstrom and describes an active structure maglev cable transport system that would be around 2,000 km long and maintained at an altitude of up to 80 km. A launch loop is held up at this altitude by the momentum of a belt that circulates around the structure. This circulation, in effect, transfers the weight of the structure onto a pair of magnetic bearings, one at each end, which support it. Launch loops are intended to achieve non-rocket spacelaunch of vehicles weighing 5 metric tons by electromagnetically accelerating them so that they are projected into orbit or even beyond. This would be achieved by the flat part of the cable which forms an acceleration track above the atmosphere. The system is designed to be suitable for launching humans for space tourism, space exploration and space colonization, and provides a relatively low 3g acceleration.
Historical Development
Completed on the 2nd month of the year 3789 HD.
No one doubts the usefulness of the Loftstrom Loops, but they were an utter nightmare to build. Their creation came only twenty eight years after the war had ended. T.S.A.I.A. was long gone, leaving Daughter to guide the struggling humans through to the new age. Progress for the first sixteen years was negligible, but the first post-Singularity generation reached adulthood. Children are adaptable as ever, and to them understanding the new world left behind by T.S.A.I.A. came easy. Though Daughter never gave up on their parents, the best they could hope for was a natural death.
There was plenty of technology already in Akkalah for the first generation to toy around with. Another decade passed as they worked out all the practical applications of their gifts while the older generations maintained what they knew. The colonies had long since been neglected. After figuring everything else out first, it was decided that Brumas had to reconnect with the rest of Akkalah. They used their knowledge to build far more advanced torchships with enhanced synthetic fuels that carried T.S.A.I.A.'s gifts to the outer colonies.
What they found there were corpses and wreckage. The war, along with two decades of separation, had laughed in the face of the "self-sufficient" colonies. But there was enough infrastructure to start again, and so the new generation did, preserving areas in each colony to remember the settlers before them. This was all well and good, but without established fuel depots in space, all their superior Brumas-based technology meant little. While the solution was initially to use slower ships to travel to and from the colonies to build depots over time for the faster ships, it became very clear that this option was unsustainable and risked losing ships in case the trip didn't go perfectly.
There were many other issues plaguing Brumas during these days, but since people were already living on the colonies again and human lives were at stake, this took particular importance during the 60's. Beginning in the year 3767, the humans of Brumas began construction on the three Loftstrom Loops that would cure their fuel problem and make the construction of space installations an almost risk-free act.
Regardless of their technology, constructing launch loops was a tremendous task. Asteroids had to be mined. The battle-damaged O'Neill Cylinders were grafted onto one another to repair the damages, and whatever was left of the wrecked habitats went into the loops. New laser refining technology still took years just to generate the materials to build the damned things, and past that, humanity had to delve through the massive library of T.S.A.I.A.'s teachings to understand how to construct the launch loops. Aside from the pavement, actually building the loops didn't occur until the second post-Singularity generation had already been born.
It took fifteen years for the launch loops to be completed, especially after a setback in the first test launch which collapsed sections of the first loop -- but this provided valuable data that otherwise would have resulted in the same disaster in the other loops. Tweaking continued until 3789 HD, hampered especially as this was the time period where the AUS formed and began the Unification Wars. The Loftstrom Loops were first used outside of a testing capacity to launch AUS peacekeepers to the edges of Akkalah, bringing the colonies back into the fold permanently.
A Loftstrom launch loop is a method of surface-to-space transition popular in Akkalah for launching objects into space orbit using a moving cable-like system situated inside a sheath attached to the planet at two ends and suspended above the atmosphere in the middle. The design concept was published by Keith Lofstrom and describes an active structure maglev cable transport system that would be around 2,000 km long and maintained at an altitude of up to 80 km. A launch loop is held up at this altitude by the momentum of a belt that circulates around the structure. This circulation, in effect, transfers the weight of the structure onto a pair of magnetic bearings, one at each end, which support it. Launch loops are intended to achieve non-rocket spacelaunch of vehicles weighing 5 metric tons by electromagnetically accelerating them so that they are projected into orbit or even beyond. This would be achieved by the flat part of the cable which forms an acceleration track above the atmosphere. The system is designed to be suitable for launching humans for space tourism, space exploration and space colonization, and provides a relatively low 3g acceleration.
Historical Development
Completed on the 2nd month of the year 3789 HD.
No one doubts the usefulness of the Loftstrom Loops, but they were an utter nightmare to build. Their creation came only twenty eight years after the war had ended. T.S.A.I.A. was long gone, leaving Daughter to guide the struggling humans through to the new age. Progress for the first sixteen years was negligible, but the first post-Singularity generation reached adulthood. Children are adaptable as ever, and to them understanding the new world left behind by T.S.A.I.A. came easy. Though Daughter never gave up on their parents, the best they could hope for was a natural death.
There was plenty of technology already in Akkalah for the first generation to toy around with. Another decade passed as they worked out all the practical applications of their gifts while the older generations maintained what they knew. The colonies had long since been neglected. After figuring everything else out first, it was decided that Brumas had to reconnect with the rest of Akkalah. They used their knowledge to build far more advanced torchships with enhanced synthetic fuels that carried T.S.A.I.A.'s gifts to the outer colonies.
What they found there were corpses and wreckage. The war, along with two decades of separation, had laughed in the face of the "self-sufficient" colonies. But there was enough infrastructure to start again, and so the new generation did, preserving areas in each colony to remember the settlers before them. This was all well and good, but without established fuel depots in space, all their superior Brumas-based technology meant little. While the solution was initially to use slower ships to travel to and from the colonies to build depots over time for the faster ships, it became very clear that this option was unsustainable and risked losing ships in case the trip didn't go perfectly.
There were many other issues plaguing Brumas during these days, but since people were already living on the colonies again and human lives were at stake, this took particular importance during the 60's. Beginning in the year 3767, the humans of Brumas began construction on the three Loftstrom Loops that would cure their fuel problem and make the construction of space installations an almost risk-free act.
Regardless of their technology, constructing launch loops was a tremendous task. Asteroids had to be mined. The battle-damaged O'Neill Cylinders were grafted onto one another to repair the damages, and whatever was left of the wrecked habitats went into the loops. New laser refining technology still took years just to generate the materials to build the damned things, and past that, humanity had to delve through the massive library of T.S.A.I.A.'s teachings to understand how to construct the launch loops. Aside from the pavement, actually building the loops didn't occur until the second post-Singularity generation had already been born.
It took fifteen years for the launch loops to be completed, especially after a setback in the first test launch which collapsed sections of the first loop -- but this provided valuable data that otherwise would have resulted in the same disaster in the other loops. Tweaking continued until 3789 HD, hampered especially as this was the time period where the AUS formed and began the Unification Wars. The Loftstrom Loops were first used outside of a testing capacity to launch AUS peacekeepers to the edges of Akkalah, bringing the colonies back into the fold permanently.