Is it due to energy demand or acceleration damaging the cargo/humans or something else?
In: 6
For mass drivers as a specific case, the chief reasons are:
* The power demands. To get into orbit, you need to achieve a speed of around 7500 meters per second of speed. The kinetic energy of 1 kg at that speed is about 28 megajoules. Say you are going to accelerate over 10 seconds, that’s 2.8 megawatts of power. For 1 kilogram.
* Energy loss. The fastest speed that you achieve is right out of the barrel and then you lose a lot of energy to air resistance. Rockets don’t have this issue because they travel relatively slowly while they are in the atmosphere.
* G load. You need a lot of speed over a few kilometers of launch tube, so that requires a high g load.
If you want more detail about, you can see my video [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjbuaY-psS0).
Latest Answers