<\/p>\n
From Physorg.com<\/a><\/a>:<\/p>\n With a typical launch cost for a spaceship around $20 million, it\u2019s difficult to practically conceive of a space industry beyond federally funded agencies. Nevertheless, many people believe that expanding space travel\u2014whether for research purposes, entertainment, or even colonization\u2014is not impractical. Bridging the economic hurdle may be technologies such as the maglev launch assist. According to an analysis, the cost of launching payloads into the low earth orbit with maglev may be achieved with only hundreds of dollars per pound (John Olds and Peter Bellini).<\/p>\n Most recently, researchers in a group including Wenjiang Yang and his colleagues from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have investigated the possibility of the \u201cMaglifter,\u201d a maglev launch assist vehicle originally proposed in the 1980s. In this system, a spaceship would be magnetically levitated over a track and accelerated up an incline, lifting off when it reaches a velocity of 1,000 km\/hr (620 miles\/hr). The main cost-saving areas would come from reduced fuel consumption and the reduced mass of the spaceship.<\/p>\n \u201cMagnetic levitation is a promising technology for future space transportation,\u201d Yang told PhysOrg.com<\/a>. \u201cThe most expensive part of space missions to low-Earth orbit is the first few seconds\u2014getting off the ground.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Obviously, cost-to-orbit is highly relevant to Lifeboat\u2019s push to build a space ark. Some might find it hard to imagine how a non-governmental organization has even a chance of building a space station in the foreseeable future, but that\u2019s because cost-to-orbit has historically been over $10,000 per pound. With new launch technologies like maglev-assist, the cost could come down to hundreds per pound or below. Dropping costs in launch technologies are something that we can expect to accelerate once it really gets started \u2014 especially with the growing interest in private space travel.<\/p>\n