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While SpaceX’s reusable rockets have slashed satellite launch costs to US$3,000/kg, some scientists have estimated that an electromagnetic space launch system could drive those costs down to a mere US$60/kg.
China completely invalidating SpaceX's business model would be hilarious. 
NASA is banned from working with China, so it would be genuinely hilarious if they were the only group stuck paying $3k per kg.
I’m not sure what’s funnier. If China open sources the technology and NASA would have no choice but to switch to it, or they keep it proprietary and force the US to use spacex
The funniest outcome is this: They go open source, Elon takes the concept and tries to pretend he invented the tech himself. People call him out for it, but he doubles down claiming he's never even heard of china. It gets built and explodes because he cut corners and did dumb shit. Elon immediately blames faulty Chinese tech. 
And retroactively blames those shifty [slurs] for stealing American tech that previously was just a series of doodles on a napkin
Elon tries to build a space trebuchet to compete, the release mechanism gets a bug and slams a $50,000,000 rocket directly into the ground. Blames China and Chelsea Manning.
I think the funniest outcome would be Elon being forced to try to build a space gun to try to compete.
the answer to every infrastructure problem is high-speed rail
I hope they figure out how to do this with engineless commercial airliners (I know it'll never happen but it would be cool)
High speed rail(gun).
Fuck it, I see no reason why a train couldn't be shot between two tracks 100 miles apart
I want to see this as a Dahir Insaat animation
Well, you could make a "train" to orbit but your rail would have to be hundreds of kilometers long, dozens of kilometers tall, held up with wires and particle accelerators, and the train would probably just be a single car
Btw this would just accelerate the space plane so it doesnt have to burn as much fuel as otherwise. It's not a literal train into space
i hope this works and doesn't turn humans into mashed potatoes
CPC Priorities
Mass Line
Mass Driver
Mao Z.O.E.dong
China is building High Speed Rail To Space!!! 
but at what cost?
I couldn't find the cost of this project specifically, but China's total space budget is $12 billion a year.
Pittance we sent that much to Israel this year
Must be nice to have a good government
Which Final Fantasy game am I about to be living in?
VIII for sure. The cool futuristic society in that one launched stuff to space with a railgun.
This is some 
tier shit (approving)
incredible things are happening in China
This sounds so sick
Yup you can tell this is a railroad to space cause the reporting is just as awful as all the reporting on Chinese trains
I wonder how they plan to handle the heat generated? Maybe you don't need the same kind of acceleration for a rail launcher than with a rail gun.
If they used the same acceleration as a rail gun they'd only be sending bodies to space, not people.
It’s not for people or it would be too long (?)
The article says that the railgun part accelerates the plane to mach 1.7 and then the rocket on the plane fires and it accelerates further.
The Concorde was designed to cruise at mach 2, so that's a very survivable speed if the acceleration on the rail isn't too abrupt, like you said.
I think the acceleration is the crucial part, the speed you are going at is irrelevant, just the change in speed
It’s still would be like 1-2 km, if they aim at 10g. And they still need to find another 20 machs from rocket booster.
Doing full railgun with small rockets is more poggers (without humans obv ) 
Tests will be carried out at 1.2 mile long low-vacuum track high-speed maglev test facility in Datong, generally used when researching magnetic levitation train technology
Within coming years, the Datong test facility will be extended to 37.2 miles long, to achieve a maximum operating speed of a staggering 5,000km/h.
biiiiig track incoming
That would still be a rough ride for a person, but it could absolutely revolutionize getting construction materials into orbit.
There is no space race lol china is the only one actually doing anything
