Development of a Plasma-Driven Railgun to Reach 7 km/s

Research in the area of plasma-armature railguns is currently underway at the Institute for Advanced Technology (IAT) as part of an Air Force multidisciplinary university research initiative (MURI). The program is aimed at investigating the possible use of an electromagnetic launcher for the rapid and affordable launch of microsatellites (~1 to 10 kg) into low earth orbit. In the experiment, the IAT is developing a plasma-driven railgun to launch low-mass projectiles of roughly 5-7 g to a velocity in excess of 7 km/s. This goal requires overcoming the problem of bore ablation, which has been linked to an observed velocity ceiling of about 6 km/s in plasma-armature launchers. Bore ablation is a direct consequence of the intense heat radiated by plasma armatures. This paper describes the consequences of excessive bore ablation, the rationale for the IAT experiment, and results obtained from the hardware that has been designed and tested so far.