Dr. Jesse Powell delivered an eye-opening keynote address at the 2014 Electromagnetic Launch Symposium in San Diego on the potential of maglev technology to fundamentally change the way we launch payloads to orbit. The bienniel EML symposium is the premiere conference covering the use of electromagnetics to launch projectiles and spacecraft. While this year’s conference focused heavily on advances in rail gun technology advances and naval applications, Dr. Powell’s talk introduced the Startram system to the EML community. He urged conference participants to consider a world in which  maglev radically changes our launch capabilities within 10 years.

“With Startram,” Powell said, “we can build a launch system that uses existing technology to place 100,000 tons of cargo or more in orbit per year, and do so for less than $50 per kilogram. This represents a 1000-fold increase in our launch capacity, at only 1% of the current cost per kilo. Startram will revolutionize human access to space and usher in a new space age that will change the course of history.”

Maglev Strategies, LLC is actively seeking seed funding to undertake the next phase of Startram research and development. Startram was originally invented and patented by Dr. James Powell and Dr. George Maise, though Drs. Powell and Maise hope to develop the technology as an international project for the economic benefit of all nations.