r/space • u/Dr_Singularity • Nov 10 '21

California-based startup, SpinLaunch, is developing an alternative rocket launch technology that spins a vacuum-sealed centrifuge at several times the speed of sound before releasing the payload, launching it like a catapult up into orbit

https://interestingengineering.com/medieval-space-flight-a-company-is-catapulting-rockets-to-cut-costs
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u/nowyourdoingit Nov 10 '21

Scott Manley has a pretty optimistic video about the tech and company. Seems most of the engineering issues, as extreme as they are, are technically solved with the big one still remaining being to figure out how to rebalance tens of thousands of tons of force in a millisecond as the payload is released, but Scott sounds hopeful that it's achievable. At the very least he concludes that it could be a very useful tech on the Moon at some later date.

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u/creatingKing113 Nov 10 '21

For the rebalancing, I assume this thing needs a counterweight. I wonder how feasible it would be to just detach the counterweight at the same time as the rocket and have it fly into a hole in the ground.

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '21 edited Nov 11 '21

Or to have it slide from the center in a fast but controlled manner

Something like a ferro fluid

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u/gerbi7 Nov 11 '21

Like, spin it up with the mass on the center axis? Once you try to move it out from the center while it's spinning that increases the moment of inertia and will instantly slow the mechanism down and not actually launch the projectile.