10,000g sounds pretty rough. Are there any existing electronics that we would expect to survive this?
Nokia 3310
SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
31–40 of 152 posts
Re: SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
#32Put this on the moon and we are talking. I'm not sure I see this being too useful otherwise, considering how much extra fairing mass those gforces are going to require
Yes, SpinLaunch on Moon launching ore concentrates. No housing needed, g-forces irrelevant; gravity well is smaller.
Obligatory link, "Moon is a Harsh Mistress", by Heinlein: https://archive.org/details/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress_201701
Re: SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
#33> At this point the spacecraft will be subjected to a peak force 10,000 times greater than Earth's gravity, something opponents believe will seriously affect its structural integrity and the safety of its complex electronics. These kind of forces are pretty insane compared to even the high G boost you get on a normal rocket launch. I wonder if that is going to put a crimp on their potential client list.
> wonder if that is going to put a crimp on their potential client list
Solid state electronics and fuel. With respect to the former, nothing that requires stable orientation. I don't know of a propulsion system that can survive those forces.
Re: SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
#34I hope it works because it'd be rad, but at $500K per 200-lb payload, they'll cost $2500/lb. That's only half as much as SpaceX Rideshare for the same size payload, today. If Starship works out, then SpaceX costs will drop enormously. Fuel is a minor portion of launch cost. SpinLaunch is saving fuel but throwing away rockets; it's going to be hard to compete with someone who throws away more fuel but saves the rocket…
Wut? Their goal is to allow the rocket to ignite at 200k ft. Thats only a bit lower than the altitude SpaceX ignites its second stage, which is not reusable
Putting aside starship, from the very limited information I've seen it's not clear that the operating costs of this system will be comparable to Falcon 9 for the booster phase of flight.
It seems like this launch system will be more expensive per kg, and have far greater loads on the payload than Falcon 9.
I hope it works out, and they find ways to make it commercially viable, but Falcon 9 really has set the bar for success quite high.
Re: SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
#35Put this on the moon and we are talking. I'm not sure I see this being too useful otherwise, considering how much extra fairing mass those gforces are going to require
Yes, SpinLaunch on Moon launching ore concentrates. No housing needed, g-forces irrelevant; gravity well is smaller. Obligatory link, "Moon is a Harsh Mistress", by Heinlein: https://archive.org/details/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress_201701
I came here to say exactly the same thing. Perfect for my favorite project to save the Earth - launching refined moon dust at Lagrange points.
Re: SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm still scratching my head thinking of how much force will be crushing the rocket and satellite for an hour. I know space stuff needs to be super durable, but surely the G's it'll experience over an hour will be more grueling than a traditional rocket, no?
To get a rough idea of the numbers if this was a rail gun and accelerating linearly: 1G is 32 feet/second 32 feet /second is ~22 mph They're accelerating to 5000mph so they need to crush things at 1G for ~230 second or just under 4 minutes. If I understand correctly, this would hold for angular acceleration too, since they'd just release at some point. Can someone correct me if I'm wrong?
Having read "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" a looong time ago, I have sometimes wondered why no one has ever tried to use rail guns as launch mechanisms. I vaguely remember from not so long ago that one of the criticisms was that the acceleration forces would crush any fragile parts like electronics, but is it still true that electronics can't be hardened to survive the acceleration forces? Are there other problems that make the idea of rail gun launchers simply impossible?
Re: SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
#37> At this point the spacecraft will be subjected to a peak force 10,000 times greater than Earth's gravity, something opponents believe will seriously affect its structural integrity and the safety of its complex electronics. These kind of forces are pretty insane compared to even the high G boost you get on a normal rocket launch. I wonder if that is going to put a crimp on their potential client list.
> wonder if that is going to put a crimp on their potential client list Solid state electronics and fuel. With respect to the former, nothing that requires stable orientation. I don't know of a propulsion system that can survive those forces.
That thing where they compress your ashes down and launch them into orbit... that may be their specialty.
Re: SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
#3810,000g sounds pretty rough. Are there any existing electronics that we would expect to survive this?
Yes. Guided munitions. Some artillery shells incorporate guidance electronics that survive these sort of conditions.
Re: SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
#39From the title, I was hoping this would be about a slingatron. That's still one of my favorite space launch proposals (the launch loop is another), but I wasn't able to quickly find a good reference. :(