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Originally Posted by TLAM Strike
Launches could be done cheaply if in place of a rocket a magnetic catapult was used. Think Railgun with human cargo. Fling it in to LEO and have a trans-lunar shuttle pick it up. Then use a cycler to send the people to Mars. BTW a cycler is basicly a space station in a perabolic orbit that goes between Earth and Mars orbit. If we ever get a space elevator working off loading people from Earth would be dirt cheap, they could even live on the elevator much like in Clarke's 3001 and The Fountians of Paradise.
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Interesting. Do you think these things could be invented and built before the latter half of this century and the critical mass that Zachstar and I have been talking about?