Technology
| Ballistic LEV | |
|---|---|
 Secondary technology of Tier N/A | |
| Science | 1820 
|
| Requires | N/A |
| Leads to | None |
| Affinity |
None |
| Buildings enabled | Mass Driver |
| Improvements enabled | None |
| Satellites enabled | N/A |
| Units enabled | N/A |
| Notes | Unlocks the Mass Driver Wonder. |
- "We don't need better bullets. We need a better way to deliver them into the bodies of our enemies."
- Rejinaldo Leonardo Pedro Bolivar de Alencar-Araripe, Principles of Modern War
History
Advances in mag-lev ballistics brought about research into the potential for moving payloads from the surface of this planet into low orbit. Initial designs focused on creating a “ballistic loop,” an active mag-lev cable transport system approximately 1000 km in length and maintained at an altitude of 80 km. Rather than other forms of propulsion, massive mag-lev engines would lift the payload compartment away from the track while simultaneously applying a hyper-ballistic 3g acceleration until it reaches orbital velocity (roughly a delta-v of 1.6 km/s2) and the compartment would leave the track. With a 500 megawatt power station, such an installation would be capable of up to 35 launches a day, making ballistic lev both affordable and productive far beyond any other method of reaching orbit. Smaller versions are currently under construction, with some colonies investigating the engineering of a full-scale ballistic lev launch loop facility.