Jan 30 1990
From The Space Library
The Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico issued a report concerning an electric gun, the coil gun, that could thrust payloads into orbit. Hoping one day that the device would launch small satellites, Bill Cowan, director of the project, predicted that objects could be hurled into space at 2.8 miles per second at one percent of the cost of conventional rockets. The gun accelerates projectiles by pulling them through successive, interacting magnetic fields created by electric currents passing through coils of wire. According to Cowan, obstacles such as damage to the payloads and launchers themselves and the heat generated by projectiles rapidly propelled through the atmosphere would eventually be overcome. (NY Times, Jan 30/90)
Astronauts who retrieved the Long Duration Exposure Facility in early January said, in a press briefing, that the satellite was in worse shape than engineers had expected after its nearly 6-year orbit. The conclusion was that materials used for the planned Space Station would require greater scrutiny. (W Times, Jan 31/90)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
