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Saturday, April 16, 2022
No First Stage to Orbit
The idea is to fling a small rocket out of it at hypersonic speeds, which will require the thing to spin up to 10,000rpm. So just a teeny error in releasing the launch vehicle could be a bit of a problem. Setting up the launch centrifuge at as high an elevation as possible (not at a coastal site, as shown in the video) and as close to the equator as possible would seem to be a good thing. But there are all sort of geopolitical issues in that, too. And the sonic boom of a hypersonic craft at ground level might be epic.
It's an intriguing concept.
9 comments:
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if snazzy CGI could get you into orbit....
ReplyDeleteNot entirely appropriate for humans though. Me, I'd weigh 75,000 pounds -- it revs up to 500 gs.
ReplyDeleteWhile the vehicle is spun up, it is rotating at the same rate as the arm holding it. Once it is released, it will tumble at 10,000 RPM, which is sub-optimal for surviving the first blazing seconds of flight.
ReplyDeleteOnce it’s released from the arm, won’t it fly straight? Centripetal force and all that? I seem to recall that from physics class.
ReplyDeleteThe vehicle center of gravity travels a straight trajectory when it is released. No problem there. However, the vehicle itself still has angular momentum gathered by being fixed to the spinning arm. It will flip end over end at 10,000 rpm. 167 times a second.
ReplyDeleteTo keep this from happening, the vehicle would need to be in a special cage that rotates counter to the arm spin so the vehicle always points in the same direction.
Meanwhile, the now-out-of-balance rotating arm beats itself to death.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the CGI overlooks the problems enough to inhale investor dollars.
So I wasted all that VC money?
ReplyDeleteOk mr meanie, now tell us why SpaceLiftElevator® won't work either and that I've wasted more money.
Space guns.
ReplyDeletehttps://newatlas.com/space/greenlaunch-space-cannon-gas-launch/
I'm in favor of conveyor belts. The idea has been around for 4 decades, so folks have had plenty of time and opportunity to critique it.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launch_loop