Engineers who spent their whole childhood watching Loony Toons: “My time has come!”
Has it ever launched anything into orbital altitudes yet? So it’s like AI, then? Let’s pour money into it asap!
I remember watching debunking video of this years ago. If I remember right, the problem was how to stop a projectile (a rocket in this case) from spining once it’s released. I need to find that video …
I did watch that and there are problems but the debunking video itself was really bad and acted like there were problems that had already been addressed in the video it was a direct response too. It still seems like a crazy idea but they have had test launches and there didn’t seem to be a spinning issue.
OK, but couldn’t the item have some small thrusters with a control system to cancel out any tumbling/spinning once it’s launched? That would require some fuel, but a lot less than required for a traditional launch…
And wouldn’t fins like on an arrow take care of stabilizing spin around the major(?) axis?
Pls don’t flame me, I’m not a physicist or rocket-scientist :)
Let’s all go reread “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.”
I want it to work because it would be so fuckin cool. Yeet my ashes into orbit pls.
Launcher may handle 10,000 g’s, but satellites tend to be kind of fragile
Satellites have to go through shock and vibe testing based on the vehicle bringing them up, satellites using spinlaunch will need to be built around it.
How many oceangates is that? Can we send CEOs in it?
You’d be surprised how well modern cubesats are already designed implicitly with high-G components. There was a video about them testing an “off-the-shelf” sat from a professor and it held up with only some minor modifications.
10000 g’s of centigrugal acceleration for half an hour. I think that alone makes this project a dead end.
This project will not succeed. Dont waste time on it.
not possible. This could work for orbiting probes but only if you send up a little fuel with it as well. The orbital mechanics work out so that the probe will fall to the height of the catapult which is in the atmosphere.
What prevents them from doing exactly that?
Lots of (all?) satellites have propulsion systems to make orbit adjustments anyway. Is it that complicated to bolster them a bit for that purpose?
Well I just meant the restriction in the title where it said no rocket fuel. Its not possible if you have no rocket fuel. But they probably will use rocket fuel if they get the faucility to have a big enough diameter to get mostly to orbit.
I’d imagine having the propellant tanks, plumbing, valves and engines survive 10,000Gs without crumpling or deforming to the point of failure is going to be a bit of an issue. Any thin and lightweight structures like foldable solar panels (and their deployment mechanisms) are also going to be tricky.
Hmm, but if the acceleration is gradual, shouldn’t it be fine?
Or are you referring to the constant centripetal acceleration felt by the object as it’s spinning?
Man is physics class far away
The centripetal acceleration. It’s going to ramp up fast. There’s also the concern of what’s gonna happen to the payload when it’s released, exits the vacuum chamber and smacks right the fuck into the dense low-level atmosphere at a significant Mach number. Cause that’s what has to happen if the goal is to reduce the need for onboard propellant.
I saw a documentary years ago about this, really cool technology, and it saved a lot of money.
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