Magnets to chuck stuff into orbit?
Hot on the heels of the previous story speculating about the potential of gauss guns to shoot satellites into the sky comes this story from New Scientist detailing a scheme to do exactly that.
A study by the US air force found that a huge ring of superconducting magnets (something like the above particle accelerator) could hurl satellites into space.
Probably make a great weapon too.
This magnet based system would reportedly be much cheaper than conventional rocket launches. But the intense g forces developed during launch might crush the payload like a tin can on a train track.