How are we going to go to space in the future? Using a maglev cannon of course. The minds behind the Stratra project, a $60 billion, 1,000-mile long, 12-mile high, 20,000-miles-per-hour maglev train that starts on the ground and arrives in low Earth orbit, says that it could reduce the cost per kilo for cargo from roughly $10,000 to just $50.

According to Startram, they will start a maglev train in a vacuum sealed tunnel on the ground and accelerate it for five straight minutes to speeds of 5.6 miles per second. They will then launch it from the end of the tunnel, which needs to be raised 12 miles into the sky where the air is thin enough to not destroy the spacecraft train moving at 20,000 miles per hour. That's incredibly fast.

Powell and his partner Dr. George Maise posit that if they were to run a superconducting cable through the ground beneath the ascending maglev tunnel carrying 200 million amperes and cable in the launch tube itself bearing 20 million amperes, the tunnel would remain suspended up there via magnetic levitation.

Sandia National Labs reviewed the proposal and couldn't find any reason to rule it out as impossible entirely. But $60 billion is a lot. But the long term savings for this would be incredible. The future looks really exciting right now.

[Gizmag]