This is a scheme for transportation between low earth orbit and the lunar surface with almost no propellent expenditure.

The basic architecture is that there would be a tether in an elliptical, equatorial orbit around the earth that would throw a payload to the moon. At the moon a lunar rotovator would catch it and deposit it on the moon.

To keep the system balanced, the rotovator picks a similar mass payload (or a rock) off the moon and chucks it back at the earth.

In theory this system would require no fuel expenditure at all; because the mass is balanced. However, because the moon's orbit is in a slightly different plane than the earth the rotovator and the earth tether do not quite line up; so a small corrective burn is needed, but the overall delta-v needed is massively reduced.

Interestingly, because the Moon is in a high energy orbit around the earth, it is actually possible to generate energy from this system by picking rocks off the moon and dumping them on the Earth.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.