this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
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Technik

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is just investor bait.

Remarkably, this process eliminates the need for rocket fuel

No, it doesn't. It's physically impossible to fling something into orbit from earth.
You can fling it into space, but you need a circularization burn or it will just fall back down.
And since you can't accelerate anything past Mach 5 or so inside the atmosphere, the circularization burn will need to be 90% of the delta V.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Thanks for the detail! I thought it should definitely be possible in theory to throw something into orbit. But you're right, I didn't think of the atmosphere and its friction. You would also have to throw at a very flat angle so theres a lot of atmosphere for your projectile to pass through.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Even without air friction, and no matter how flat you throw it, you'd always throw it into an elliptical "orbit". But the lowest point of the ellipse would still be on the surface, no matter how high the upper end is.
So it would always come back down, unless you give it another push at the highest point (in space).

If you just throw it even faster, you'll hit escape velocity and it would leave earth entirely.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Damn, physics

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Makes sense as well. So the projectiles they throw not only have to be able to withstand the launch and release the payload, but they also have to be functioning rockets to allow for a circulation burn...

Well good luck to them.

Edit: I think I had that animation in mind where the canon shoots a canon-ball into a circular orbit (don't remember where I saw it), but I guess that's impossible, too, then. >.<

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Works on a moon w no atmosphere, not on Earth.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Just build a tower taller than the atmosphere, now you don't need rockets because you have a space elevator.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

That’s a very optimistic headline. They haven’t made any orbital launch attempts, as far as I can tell.

The whole article looks like it was written by an amateur space journalist that has no idea what is going on in the industry, but falls for all the marketing.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Also: getting up is easy. The hard part is getting fast enough so you don't fall down again. So you still need quite some fuel no matter how high you can throw.

BTW: Spinlaunch knows this of course. They plan to sling a rocket into space to get the payload to orbital speed. Funny that is not mentioned in the article.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Yeah, when I first heard what they are trying I was extremely sceptical. Watching some YouTube videos that talk through the physics involved didn't help much. So I was extremely, surprised reading this headline and thinking they actually got something into orbit. I'm somehow both relieved and upset that they didn't.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just imagine how much more efficient this could be with a clearly superior launching device like the trebuchet.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Thats for interplanetary delivery.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Here's a Scott Manley video about the pros and cons of SpinLaunch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAczd3mt3X0

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Höckler drauf, weg damit

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Thunderf00t already debunked this crap 2 years ago: https://youtu.be/9ziGI0i9VbE

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 month ago

This loser couldnt debunk a fart

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This loser couldnt debunk a fart

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

He gets a lot right, and some things very, very wrong with way too much confidence

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

What's an example of where he got it wrong?

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 month ago

I shouldn’t have to, hes just a troll