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From: mcgeer@JI (Rick McGeer)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re:  Shooting into orbit
Message-ID: <8512232351.AA20670@ji>
Date: Mon, 23-Dec-85 18:51:43 EST
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Posted: Mon Dec 23 18:51:43 1985
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	I thought of something related to the "catcher" idea, and I'm not sure
it would work.  This involves a transfer station in LEO, a two-way rail gun.
Each shot is in pairs -- one side goes to GEO or moon-transfer orbit, the
second is an earth entry orbit.  It seems to me (no calculations, sadly) that
one could, in principle, ship very large amounts of mass to HEO and beyond
in this manner.  In effect, each of the two payloads uses the other as reaction
mass.  The efficacy of the method is dependent upon how often you want to ship
material both ways from LEO.

					-- Rick.