Developments in making space access rapid and affordable using a plasma railgun

For the last four years, the Institute for Advanced Technology has been working on the development of a plasma driven electromagnetic launcher (EML), for economic access to space. The research is focused on overcoming setbacks experienced in the early developmental days of plasma-driven EMLs, which prevented researchers from obtaining muzzle velocities in excess of 6 km /s. The possibility of achieving muzzle velocities in excess of 7 km/s with an EML make its use attractive and cost-efficient means for launching small (~ 10 kg) microsatellites into low Earth orbit. For that reason, the research being performed is funded as part of a multidisciplinary university research initiative (MURI) by the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). In the summer of 2007, a muzzle velocity of 5.2 km/s was achieved with no evidence of restrike arcs or bore ablation, the effects of which are believed to limit the velocity of plasma railguns to no more than 6 km/s. Since then, a series of modifications have been made to the railgun bore to improve its performance and lifetime. Some of those modifications, and the experimental results obtained as a result, are discussed here.