Extraterrestrial transportation apparatus and methods

A method for transporting much cargo from an orbital location about the Earth which has an altitude above the Earth of less than 40,000 km to a different orbital location about the Earth which has an altitude above the Earth of less than 40,000 km;

• said method also includes the transportation of intransit received cargo from orbital locations about the Earth which have altitudes that are more than 300,000 km above the Earth to a different orbital location about the Earth which has an altitude above the Earth of less than 40,000 km;
• said method comprising the steps of:
• attaching said much cargo to an orbital transportation facility, said much cargo has a mass on the order of or in excess of the mass of said orbital transportation facility;
• propelling a series of crashloads toward said facility, said crashloads fragmentized into said intransit cargo when said crashloads are received by said facility;
• directing each separate crashload of said series through an opening into an impact chamber of said facility, said crashload passes through said opening with a speed in excess of 1,000 meters per second, said impact chamber has a volume in excess of 5 cubic meters, the length of time between successive crashload passages through said opening is greater than 100 seconds, and all of said series of crashloads pass through said opening with a relative velocity that has somewhat the same direction;
• positioning loose materials in said impact chamber;
• so directing said crashload along a path into said impact chamber so that said crashload interacts with said loose materials such that said crashload is fragmentized and there is negligible damage to said impact chamber;
• containing the fragments of said crashload and said loose materials in said impact chamber, said fragments include solids, and fluids, and said fragments are mixed by the interaction of said crashload and said loose materials;
• withdrawing some of the mixture of loose materials and crashload fragments from said impact chamber;
• processing the withdrawn mixture of loose materials and fragments into loose materials and into said intransit received cargo;
• attaching said intransit received cargo that has been processed to said facility;
• separating said much cargo from said facility and deliver said much cargo to a different orbital location;
• and
• separating said intransit received cargo from said facility and deliver said intransit received cargo to a different orbital location.

Apparatus for receiving a cargo which has a mass greater than 10 kg and has traveled more than 10 km through space which has an average density that is less than one gram per cubic meter, said cargo has a relative velocity in excess of 500 meters per second as it travels through an opening of an extraterrestrial receiving facility and into an impact chamber which has a volume in excess of five cubic meters, said apparatus comprising:

• means for directing said cargo along a path through said opening and into said impact chamber, said path is near or about the center-line of said impact chamber;
• means for introducing loose materials into said impact chamber, the total mass of said loose materials is more than a hundred times the mass of said cargo;
• means for positioning said loose materials in said impact chamber to impact with said cargo such that there is negligible damage to said impact chamber from the resulting impactation of said cargo with said loose materials, wherein said cargo is fragmentized and becomes mixed with said loose materials;
• sturdy movable configuration means whose mass is more than ten times the mass of said cargo and is attached to the wall of said impact chamber, said configuration can move more than ten centimeters when it receives an impulse of more than 10,000 newton-seconds due to the receipt of an avalanche of loose materials and cargo fragments caused by said impactation, and the resulting damage to said configuration is negligible;
• and
• means for moving said movable configuration into position for receiving said avalanche.

In a method for transporting a cargo from an orbital location about the Earth to a different orbital location about the Earth, said method comprising the steps of:

• attaching cargo to a facility-satellite;
• propelling crash-loads seriatum from a very high orbital location about the Earth along a path toward said facility-satellite, such that said crash-loads are received seriatum by said facility-satellite, and that all crash-loads are traveling in the same direction;
• and
• producing a pseudo-gravitational field within said receiving facility;
• directing said crash-load through an opening along a path in an impact chamber of said receiving facility;
• providing particles of ferromagnetic material in said chamber;
• inducing at least one magnetic field within said facility-satellite for positioning said particles in said path for interacting with said crash-load such that the relative velocity of said crash-load is reduced to zero without significant damage to said chamber;
• and
• separating said attached cargo at a different orbital location.