Giant catapult sends satellites into space
spinlaunch.com
Giant catapult sends satellites into space
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Re: Giant catapult sends satellites into space
#2Here it's a baseball pitcher or that spinning throw (not discuss, they use a ball) then it says "Spin Launch"
Re: Giant catapult sends satellites into space
#3Re: Giant catapult sends satellites into space
#4Re: Giant catapult sends satellites into space
#5https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_gun
"In Project HARP, a 1960s joint United States and Canada defence project, a U.S. Navy 410 mm (16 in) 100 caliber gun was used to fire a 180 kg (400 lb) projectile at 3,600 m/s (12,960 km/h; 8,050 mph), reaching an apogee of 180 km (110 mi), hence performing a suborbital spaceflight."
Re: Giant catapult sends satellites into space
#6Re: Giant catapult sends satellites into space
#7Orbital accelerators are cool, IMO they feel much more sci-fi than rockets (and still a step below space elevators). They're not without their tradeoffs, though: the G-forces involved mean they're not suitable for living creatures, and because of atmospheric drag they're most suited to putting things into lower orbits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_gun "In Project HARP, a 1960s joint United States and Canada de…
Re: Giant catapult sends satellites into space
#8Atmospheric drag is greatest at sea level, and drops as altitude increases. A traditional lift vehicle is traveling slowest during the early parts of its ascent, and starts reaching high velocity once it's cleared the thicker parts of the atmosphere. In contrast, spin launch is at its highest velocity (before the rocket engine ignites) right after it's released, so it's going to bleed off a lot of speed before it reaches the upper atmosphere.
Second, spinning exerts very heavy lateral Gs on the vehicle and load. This is not typical for space launch payloads, which are usually only designed to withstand vertical Gs. When the catapult releases the payload, atmospheric drag is going to put heavy vertical Gs on the payload. So a payload delivered through spin launch is going to have to withstand both lateral and vertical Gs.
Its an interesting concept, but I'm not sure if the advantages of this approach outweigh the disadvantages.
I do see a future use case for spin launchers based in vacuum, say, on the moon. Or maybe on Mars where atmosphere is much thinner.