Posted on 12/03/2021 4:08:23 AM PST by MtnClimber
The founders of the company Spinlaunch are making a boatload, but it doesn't look as though they'll ever deliver.
Spinlaunch is a high-tech company that is attempting to modernize that biblical weapon, the sling. The Brothers Yaney are marketing Spinlaunch as the most efficient means to sling small satellites into orbit. The physics is straightforward, but the mechanics are anything but, and the financial rewards for the Brothers Yaney are out of this world. Who would think separating the wealthy from their money could be so much fun? And no, that is not the tagline to the movie The Brothers Bloom.
The physics of the Spinlaunch is simple: spin the launch vehicle faster and faster in a vacuum (to eliminate friction), then release the launch vehicle. The momentum at the point of release will be sufficient for the launch vehicle to a height of 200 miles above the Earth.
Spinlaunch's vacuum-enclosed prototype centrifuge (located at the New Mexico Spaceport) is three hundred feet across. The full-scale vacuum-enclosed centrifuge will be nine hundred feet across, making it the world's largest vacuum structure. If it does not collapse under the weight of gravity, it will collapse under the pull of the vacuum.
The Spinlaunch centrifuge will spin (10,000 gs) the 2,500-pound launch vehicle to 5,000 mph. A slight imbalance between the centrifuge and the launch vehicles or uneven wear on the critical parts would result in vibrations that could cause the structure to disintegrate. An error of just milliseconds in releasing the launch vehicle would cause the launch vehicle to touch the side of the launch tube, causing the structure to disintegrate. There would be enough energy when Spinlaunch disintegrates to destroy a small city.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Why not use birds to fly the satellites into orbit. I would use African Swallows.
What is the airspeed of a satellite-laden African Swallow?
I don’t know. AIEEEEEE
I was picturing a carrier catapult a couple miles long..
“Spinlaunch will subject the satellites to ten thousand times the force of gravity,”
The forces from a rocket launch are a big consideration in satellite with weight limiting the mechanical design. This would seem magnitudes worse.
Maybe they could add voter registration and mail-in ballot boxes at their launch site for public support.
Have your African Swallows been jabbed?
Seems like more of a trebuchet than a slingshot.
Agreed a far-fetched concept. No pun intended. Well maybe a little..
The G’s from one of those slingshot rides are bad enough! I can’t even fathom 10,000x. I’m no expert but I’d imagine that would crush a car pretty quick.
How is the payload going to survive the enormous centrifugal force that would unavoidably accompany the process of achieving escape velocity prior to launch via trebuchet?
The physics is just a little iffy as to whether or not it can really be done with current technology. But, that's what research is all about. It would be a really cheap way to space if it can be made to work.
The launce speed that they quoted was 5,000 mph. That would be nowhere near the speed required for a satallite in orbit (17,000 mph).
That is without even considering the huge(!) aerodynamic friction that the satallite would see on assent. The thing would look like a flamming meteor going up.
The project suffered delays when celebrated rocket engineer Mike Hughes died while trying to launch his steam powered rocket
Yeah, I would not want to be in one of those little buildings when the thing disintegrates. I would want to be 100 miles away at least.
Yeah, 10,000 gs?! About the only thing that will survive launch is a solid metal sphere. So great if you want to launch calsats, kind of useless for any real satellite.
Satellites need a specific velocity to maintain the orbit they are in. This speed is high enough that satellites burn up when they contact the upper atmosphere. In this case the slingshot velocity would need to be much greater than the orbital velocity to account for atmospheric drag and the change in potential energy between the Earth’s surface and the orbital height. That higher velocity would be at the dense part of the atmoshere right at the Earth’s surface. Preventing it from melting in the first 100,000 feet would be a big challenge.
Just use anti-gravity. Not that hard. Like frozen magnets and shit.
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