Question

Proposals to mine resources from the Moon have included suggestions that the goods could be launched toward Earth using an electromagnetic railgun, also called a mass driver, which is essentially an apparatus like that described in (Figure 1), with a cargo capsule incorporated into the conducting bar. With rails spaced 1.00 m apart and a magnetic field of 0.807 T, what emf would be needed to achieve a speed that's 60 % greater than lunar escape speed? The lunar escape speed is 2.38 km/s.

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Answer 1

lunar escape speed is 2.38 km/s. v = speed = 60% of 2.38 km/s = (60/100 ) 2.38 = 1.428 km/s B = magnetic field =0.807 T L = length of rod = 1.00 m emf needed = B *v*L = 0.807* 1.428* 1.00 = 1.152 V