Catching 2026 MF2

TransAstra wants to jump up at 2026 MF2 next November. 25m, 14 kT=Mg. To get there: an additional 2.1 km/s of ΔV after an Earth escape. Then TransAstra waits a year and applies force to take away 1 km/s. That remainder happens to match, roughly, 325 Mm semimajor speed of 1.11 km/s HEO (yay, the maths checked out). I assume we don't want it GEO or LEO. Here are the receipts.

This is compared with the 2.7 km/s to get from Earth escape to our Moon.

1.4E7 T m/s momentum to be decel'd over 3.156E7 seconds (in a year) comes to a constant 443.6 N... over a year. That, saith Copilot, is 5 MW; and we'd expend 460 T of propellant... for the lower ISP solution. Higher ISP runs more like 20 MW losing 240 T of propellant. So, this isn't their kilotonne tug.

Higher I_sp implies a very hot engine and I believe would constrain the propellant. Also might need to add radiators on the latter. Higher and more-expensive if you want to dip this into the midway of Van Allens, but then we'll need to dodge GEOsats.

Anyway, since it's on my mind of late: with the Spaceline, even using lame-if-elastic Kevlar on this hither end, you don't even have to escape Earth. You just have to get to HEO whence to catch the hook. The rest of it ain't ΔV; it is literally taking the lift.

Also mayyybe if this guy is in HEO it can also catch the Spaceline. For the nerds: that 14kT, even if decel'd to HEO 1.1+ km/s, is packing even more momentum for a Spaceline-rooted cable to catch.