New Way to Launch

[dik]

Almost reminds me of Gerald Bull's HARP gun approach...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...chs-whirl-n-hurl-space-launch-technology.html

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Do you feel any better?

-Dik

 

[IRstuff]

sounds pretty insane; there' going to be 11,143 g's at launch. That only gets you to 1/3 of orbital velocity

I'm surprised that NASA is funding this; it's sounds like a "DARPA-hard" kind of problem

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[LittleInch]

How on earth does someone find the money to actually build that and employ all those people??

It looks like utter madness, but if they have tried it then maybe. The video doesn't look real though.

They also say later ones will include rocket motors, just reducing the fuel load.

When that goes wrong it will go wrong rather spectacularly. I can't even think what the reliability has to be for the release mechanism.

A decent review here with some reasonable numbers. Basically there seem to be some pretty fundamental problems coming up.

Think it's not going to be work myself...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAczd3mt3X0

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[dik]

I had dinner several times with Gerald Bull in Toronto, decades back, before somebody 'got him'. He was a neat character... a bit crispy at times... but interesting. I wish I had his technical memoranda; they would have been fascinating.

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Do you feel any better?

-Dik

 

[IRstuff]

Here's another naysayer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ziGI0i9VbE

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[dik]

Thanks, IRS... don't you hate it when your release is just a tad off? It's like using a giant sling to throw a snowball, but 'really' fast.

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Do you feel any better?

-Dik

 

[IRstuff]

Makes it just more amazing that David slew Goliath with something like that ;-)

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[dik]

a snowball?

We used to make them as kids with a chunk of fabric about a foot long and we would tie a cord to each end and make a loop on the one cord that fit around your wrist. We'd put a snowball into the fabric and grasp the cord without the loop and spin it around and let go of the free end... great for distance and speed...

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Do you feel any better?

-Dik

 

[itsmoked]

What happens to the spinning system once a large piece of weight is removed from one side?

Did it bother anyone else that the projectile came out with a large amount of lateral displacement?

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[dik]

I figured that would be part of the calculation... even with snowball slings, you had to make a compensation. As I noted, 'don't you hate it when you are a tad off.'

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Do you feel any better?

-Dik

 

[btrueblood]

They must have a ballast tank on the opposite end of the arm, filled with say water, which can be burst or rapidly dumped by some other means. Dunno what a water lump moving at mach 3 will do the the chamber walls. Alternatively, the bearings are overdesigned to withstand the unbalance force; but at full scale those are whopping big.

 

[TheTick]

This is only new if you haven't picked up a Popular Science magazine in the last 50 years. There are reasons we are not doing this (as so many have noted).

 

[EdStainless]

My favorite launch system proposed was the B&W mountain launch system.
There is nothing like high pressure hydrogen and superheated steam.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
P.E. Metallurgy, consulting work welcomed

 

[btrueblood]

U. of Washington - got my Master's degree helping on the ram accelerator project. One aspect of which was a space launcher.

https://www.aa.washington.edu/research/ramaccel

The cool thing is, we got it working.

For all the chuckles, non-rocket first stages (cannons, rail guns, spinning rotors, or ram accelerators) are not impossible projects, and putting dumb payloads (air, water, food supplies) into orbit to support space stations and the like is a good use for them; stuff that is important to get up there, but not worrisome if a few loads don't make it. The only real downside to them is the noise and flash of hypersonic projectiles...but it's comparable in nuisance to a rocket launch.

The economics of them is what kills them, you need a lot of money and time to develop the system, and more delicate payloads (comsats) can't use them, so where is the revenue? Until you have a lot more human activity in orbit, there is no demand.