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Inside SpinLaunch, the Space Industry’s Best Kept Secret
"Last summer, a secretive space company took up residence in a massive warehouse
in the sun-soaked industrial neighborhood that surrounds Long Beach Airport.. Reflections of turboprop planes flit across the building’s mirrored panes. Across the street a retro McDonnell Douglas sign perches above the aerospace giant’s former factory, and just around the corner Virgin Orbit is developing air-launched rockets. It’s a fitting headquarters for SpinLaunch, a company breathing new life into the decades-old idea of using giant mechanical slings to hurl rockets into orbit. The man behind this audacious plan is the serial entrepreneur Jonathan Yaney. For years he ran SpinLaunch out of a former microprocessor plant in Silicon Valley, down the road from Google. Now the company is ready to open a proper rocket factory, where it will churn out launch vehicles and, if all goes well, take its first steps into the cosmos." See: https://www.wired.com/story/inside-s...t-kept-secret/ How practical is this idea compared to conventional rocketry? |
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Inside SpinLaunch, the Space Industry?s Best Kept Secret
In article , says...
On Jan/30/2020 à 17:02, wrote : See: https://www.wired.com/story/inside-s...t-kept-secret/ How practical is this idea compared to conventional rocketry? Totally impractical. Try travelling at a speed near orbital velocity low in the atmosphere. It is hard enough to do so at 50 km altitude, doing it low in the atmosphere is quite unlikely. If you launch at an altitude of 7.5 km (that would be in Asia, you can't find such a mountain outside Asia) the atmospheric pressure would be about 150 times higher than at 50 km. My opinion is that this is a scam. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a complete scam, but it's certainly a niche solution looking for a problem to solve. You're only going to be able to launch payloads which can take *a lot* of Gs (i.e. crew launch is right out, as well as most satellite launches). And when the vehicle (supersonic projectile really) exits the launcher, you're going to get one hell of a sonic boom in the area surrounding the facility, so you can't really build a spin-launcher anywhere near people or animals (so desert or remote island launch?). So, anything you launch will have to be transported to a remote site to begin with! Not terribly practical compared with other launch options. So, what's left that's remotely practical to launch with this thing? Bulk cargo and warheads. And even with bulk cargo, you're going to either need a tug in LEO to get the payload to somewhere useful, or this thing is going to be resupplying a LEO fuel depot or similar. More likely this company is hoping to do a smallish demo "launch" in order to attract a military contract so they can go "full scale". Because, to me anyway, it really doesn't make much sense given the practicality of first stage reuse (i.e. Falcon 9) or even air launch (Pegasus, Stratolaunch, or Virgin Galactic). Air launch is far more practical, IMHO as it can be responsive and can use existing airports for its aircraft operations. And as Virgin Galactic has shown, you can easily convert a 747 into a carrier aircraft by simply using the spare engine mounting point, so you don't have to go all one off aircraft like Stratolaunch. In summary, I'd say it's a scam in so far as they're seeking investors by marketing this thing as a practical commercial launch vehicle which it will never be. This would do far better as a DARPA funded project, as that's the only practical use I see for the thing. Jeff -- All opinions posted by me on Usenet News are mine, and mine alone. These posts do not reflect the opinions of my family, friends, employer, or any organization that I am a member of. |
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Inside SpinLaunch, the Space Industry?s Best Kept Secret
On Jan/31/2020 at 07:03, Jeff Findley wrote :
In article , says... On Jan/30/2020 à 17:02, wrote : See: https://www.wired.com/story/inside-s...t-kept-secret/ How practical is this idea compared to conventional rocketry? Totally impractical. Try travelling at a speed near orbital velocity low in the atmosphere. It is hard enough to do so at 50 km altitude, doing it low in the atmosphere is quite unlikely. If you launch at an altitude of 7.5 km (that would be in Asia, you can't find such a mountain outside Asia) the atmospheric pressure would be about 150 times higher than at 50 km. My opinion is that this is a scam. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a complete scam, but it's certainly a niche solution looking for a problem to solve. You're only going to be able to launch payloads which can take *a lot* of Gs (i.e. crew launch is right out, as well as most satellite launches). And when the vehicle (supersonic projectile really) exits the launcher, you're going to get one hell of a sonic boom in the area surrounding the facility, so you can't really build a spin-launcher anywhere near people or animals (so desert or remote island launch?). So, anything you launch will have to be transported to a remote site to begin with! Not terribly practical compared with other launch options. So, what's left that's remotely practical to launch with this thing? Bulk cargo and warheads. And even with bulk cargo, you're going to either need a tug in LEO to get the payload to somewhere useful, or this thing is going to be resupplying a LEO fuel depot or similar. I don't think it has a launch rate high enough to be interesting for launching warheads. They advertise a possible high launch rate, something like a few launches per day, that is high for orbital rockets but way too low for guns. Alain Fournier |
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Inside SpinLaunch, the Space Industry?s Best Kept Secret
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Inside SpinLaunch, the Space Industry?s Best Kept Secret
On Feb/1/2020 at 08:11, Jeff Findley wrote :
In article , says... I don't think it has a launch rate high enough to be interesting for launching warheads. They advertise a possible high launch rate, something like a few launches per day, that is high for orbital rockets but way too low for guns. True. It's a solution looking for a problem to solve. I certainly wouldn't invest a dime on this. Yeah, a dime is really an upper limit for this :-) Now, for the moon, this thing would be perfect. No air on the moon means no drag, no aerodynamic heating, and most especially no sonic boom when exiting the launcher. And as a bonus, the 1/6 gravity also makes for a low escape velocity and theretofore the required exit velocity is much lower. Yes if you have a base on the moon, some method of throwing things off the moon makes sense. I'm not sure if spinning is the way to do it, a linear track might be better, or spinning it up to speed might be better, I don't know. But using electricity to save fuel and oxidizer like this is the way to go. Alain Fournier |
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Inside SpinLaunch, the Space Industry’s Best Kept Secret
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