Lightning Tunnel

An artificial lightning-like discharge collinear with the nose of the launch sled can drastically reduce heating and drag with a surprisingly low amount of power in the electric arc.

The main launchloop acceleration track is at 80 km equatorial altitude, with sled velocities ranging from 7.5 km/s to 11 km/s tangential to the Earth's surface. According US Standard Atmosphere 1976, the atmosphere at 80 km is cold and about 15 ppm pressure and density. While the real atmosphere is turbulent, frisky, and varies with time of day and weather conditions, for the following simplified analysis we will use these conditions:

altitude, km

0

40

50

60

70

75

80

density kg/m³

1.2250e+0

3.9957e-3

1.0269e-3

3.0968e-4

8.2829e-5

3.9921e-5

1.8458e-5

pressure Pa

10132.5

287.14

79.779

21.958

5.2209

2.3881

1.0524

temperature K

288.150

250.350

270.650

247.021

219.585

208.399

198.639

Number dens. n/m³

2.5470e25

8.3077e22

2.1351e22

6.4387e21

1.7222e21

8.3003e20

3.8378e20

particle speed m/s

458.94

427.78

444.79

434.93

400.64

390.30

381.05

Collision freq. Hz

6.9189e+9

2.1036e+7

5.6210e+6

1.6195e+6

4.0839e+5

1.9175e+5

8.6559e+4

mean free path m

6.6332e-8

2.0336e-5

7.9130e-5

2.6239e-4

9.8102e-4

2.0354e-3

4.4022e-3

sound speed m/s

340.39

317.19

329.80

315.07

297.06

289.40

282.54

Kinematic viscosity m²/s

1.46073-5

4.0066e-3

1.6591e-2

5.1141e-2

1.7357e-1

3.4465e-1

7.2557e-1