I know someone who works there.
“launched skyward” ... isn’t orbital.
Would like to see some graphs on the functional envelope for this. 100 miles of air is a lot of friction to shoot through. 5,000 MPH starting velocity isn’t 14,000 MPH lateral velocity necessary for low orbit. Release window is very very small, and a millisecond off means a lot of energy going in the wrong (or many) direction. A little extra launch mass means a lot more energy involved.
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I wonder if they were inspired by the spin speed of the Clinton administration?
Hope that my neighbor’s kitty doesn’t see this. He thinks that all things involving cats are his domain. I have to apologize to him every time I have a CAT scan without him.
This is actually pretty cool although they admit it’s just a prototype.
Something tells me they might encounter intractable problems trying to scale this thing up to escape velocity.
What kind of payload can take 10,000G? a ball bearing. That’s like 1-2 million lbs for the average human!
Might be an interesting application for laser boosted launches.
10,000 G. Think of what would happen if Michael Moore and Stacey Abrams sat on you.
I would like to think the Spinlaunch approach was inspired by that squirrel-proof bird feeder.
Not many items can withstand a 10,000g spin. Not many structures can withstand that load.
A very interesting piece of kit.
I think of it as kind of a ‘Sky Darts’! Made sure that there is a valid NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) for your launch window. Embarrassing for a 30k high airliner suddenly getting ‘pranged’ by a very large dart!
This might work a whole lot better if they built their gizmo on a high mountaintop. Maybe on the Altiplano in Bolivia, as close to the Equator as possible.
In any case, I think Heinlein’s linear accelerator is a much better technology. Doesn’t subject the payload to 10,000G for one thing. Built high enough and long enough, it could loft multi-ton payloads all the way to low earth orbit.
Neat stuff.
I think I read that they want to put the final version on top of a mountain to get a head start and thinner atmosphere. Mauna Kea?
Release on the upswing
Not the downswing
Wonder how deep the hole would be...
you’d think they’d of videoed it or something...