*If* the claims are correct, the big advantage of the Spinlaunch is that
it can be used several times a day rather than once a week or once a
month. Whether that turns out to be an advantage depends on how many
companies (or individuals) would pay to have something placed in orbit.
Rich Americans seem to be willing to spend large amounts of money for
trivia. I'm pretty sure that there are enough stupid + rich people who
would be willing to toss a million or so into their own personal
satellite that does something absurd.
Be a great way to get rid of a body so that, for all intents and
purposes, it can't be found.:-) Then again, I suppose its trajectory
would be known for some years to come, but in practice retrieval would
be a challenge...
Best -- Terry
On 1/30/2020 3:22 PM, Henry Spencer wrote:
On Thu, 30 Jan 2020, JOHN KRAIESKI wrote:--
Just use [Gerald] Bulls gun technology
Unfortunately, it has the same weakness: in return for severe size and structural constraints on the rocket, performance requirements are relaxed only a little bit -- probably not enough to eliminate one rocket stage. (Note that two rocket stages are enough to reach orbit without help, as witness Atlas V, Delta IV, Falcon 9, Zenit, Athena I, Electron, etc.) All it saves is a bit of fuel, which costs almost nothing -- certainly not enough to justify developing and building an expensive leading-edge-tech launch-assist device.
Just build the rocket part, and make its tanks a bit bigger.
Henry
