SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
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Re: SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
#2How does this prevent the satellite from being damaged when it transitions from 5000mph in vacuum centrifuge to less-than-5000mph-in-troposphere 1 meter later just out of the door?
That's gotta be one hell of a fairing.
Re: SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
#3“The reason it's hard to get to orbit isn't that space is high up. It's hard to get to orbit because you have to go so fast.”
Sounds like this solves the easy part (getting to high altitude), but makes the hard part (getting to orbital velocity) even harder.
Re: SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
#4I 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 rockets.
Re: SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
#5How does this prevent the satellite from being damaged when it transitions from 5000mph in vacuum centrifuge to less-than-5000mph-in-troposphere 1 meter later just out of the door? That's gotta be one hell of a fairing.
Oh wow, I was wondering why bother building housing around it. That seems incredibly expensive to build and maintain.
Your comment is very on point. If they slowly even out the atmosphere, they loose the speed. So they'll need to coordinate the door opening at exactly the right moment. And if it doesn't the whole instillation goes boom.
I feel like it would be better just to use the money to buy more rocket fuel at this point. This is so much alike to "game changing ideas" like the hyperloop, solar roadways, and other "disruptive" tech that make a cool headline, but break down the second you think about the real world logistics and cost.
I hope they prove me wrong if they can get it to work though, cheaper space flights could help the world in so many ways.
Re: SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
#6“The reason it's hard to get to orbit isn't that space is high up. It's hard to get to orbit because you have to go so fast .” https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/ Sounds like this solves the easy part (getting to high altitude), but makes the hard part (getting to orbital velocity) even harder.
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?
Re: SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
#7I 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
Re: SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
#8How does this prevent the satellite from being damaged when it transitions from 5000mph in vacuum centrifuge to less-than-5000mph-in-troposphere 1 meter later just out of the door? That's gotta be one hell of a fairing.
Oh wow, I was wondering why bother building housing around it. That seems incredibly expensive to build and maintain. Your comment is very on point. If they slowly even out the atmosphere, they loose the speed. So they'll need to coordinate the door opening at exactly the right moment. And if it doesn't the whole instillation goes boom. I feel like it would be better just to use the money to buy more rocket fuel at t…
> And if it doesn't the whole instillation goes boom.
The projectile is going to go boom when it hits the thick lower atmosphere going many times the speed of sound when it exits the vacuum chamber regardless.
Re: SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
#9“The reason it's hard to get to orbit isn't that space is high up. It's hard to get to orbit because you have to go so fast .” https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/ Sounds like this solves the easy part (getting to high altitude), but makes the hard part (getting to orbital velocity) even harder.
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?
Re: SpinLaunch is building a centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit
#10How does this prevent the satellite from being damaged when it transitions from 5000mph in vacuum centrifuge to less-than-5000mph-in-troposphere 1 meter later just out of the door? That's gotta be one hell of a fairing.
I think they're going to make it pointy.