Since the Star Wars program of the Reagan administration developed electro-magnetic accelerators to launch 'smart pebbles' into Earth orbit to attack hostile space vehicles everyone has been developing electro-magnetic accelerators for weapons at least, yet none to my knowledge has adapted the variable and controlled speed magnetic launch switching for launching space modules shaped like bullets more or less with extra disposable heat shield shock absorbers up front. Elon Musk seems like a natural engineer-electro-magnetic propulsion space-developer, so it is a curiosity to me at least why the natural development hasn't occurred?
Chemical rockets are expensive and slow. A linear accelerator 30 miles in length, quite straight and placed gradually upslope in New Mexico could launch rightly designed modules as often as a machine gun. Robert Goddard was aware of the potential of electro-magnetic accelerators for launching to orbit (and between planets with in-space accelerators of a different design and lengths of a thousand miles or more); he sought government funding to build an emg subway from New York to Boston about 1915 or so.
At 3/4s the speed of light travelling to Pluto only takes a couple or three months
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver
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