NASA to Test SpinLaunch, a Huge Accelerator Built to Slingshot Payloads to Space

[Elderberry]

Cnet by Eric Mack 4/10/2022

Who needs a rocket when you have a massive centrifuge.

On the long, desolate road between Las Cruces, New Mexico, and the main terminal of Spaceport America over an hour to the north, a bizarre structure looking something like a huge yo-yo with a small smokestack can be seen rising out of the desert floor to the east.

But the spinning that happens at this facility run by California-based SpinLaunch takes place on the inside of what is really a steel vacuum chamber 300 feet (91 meters) in diameter.  A payload attached to an internal carbon fiber arm is spun up to a speed of 5,000 miles per hour (8,000 kilometers per hour) before being released and fired out of the stack toward space.

The company completed its first public test of its suborbital mass accelerator in October and now NASA has signed up to try out the huge centrifugal slingshot later this year.

More: https://www.cnet.com/science/space/nasa-to-test-spinlaunch-a-huge-accelerator-built-to-slingshot-payloads-to-space/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=79&v=Z6esOcWrrEE&feature=emb_logo

[DB]

That's pretty wild!

They say it launches things at 5,000 miles per hour. It takes over 25,000 miles per hour to reach escape velocity. So that falls pretty far short of actually launching things into space. Definitely takes a booster rocket to actually reach space.

[Hoodat]

[roamer_1]

You know dang well there was a redneck there saying... "Howabout we just toss it up there?"

[Kamaji]

[Idiot]

Cnet by Eric Mack 4/10/2022

Who needs a rocket when you have a massive centrifuge.

On the long, desolate road between Las Cruces, New Mexico, and the main terminal of Spaceport America over an hour to the north, a bizarre structure looking something like a huge yo-yo with a small smokestack can be seen rising out of the desert floor to the east.

But the spinning that happens at this facility run by California-based SpinLaunch takes place on the inside of what is really a steel vacuum chamber 300 feet (91 meters) in diameter.  A payload attached to an internal carbon fiber arm is spun up to a speed of 5,000 miles per hour (8,000 kilometers per hour) before being released and fired out of the stack toward space.

The company completed its first public test of its suborbital mass accelerator in October and now NASA has signed up to try out the huge centrifugal slingshot later this year.

More: https://www.cnet.com/science/space/nasa-to-test-spinlaunch-a-huge-accelerator-built-to-slingshot-payloads-to-space/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=79&v=Z6esOcWrrEE&feature=emb_logo

It's got to be really good on the delicate electronics inside a satellite.

[DB]

It's got to be really good on the delicate electronics inside a satellite.

I'd guess everything has to be encapsulated in resin to make it solid so things can't move under the extreme forces.

[Elderberry]

My son built a small, but powerful, trebuchet for HS physics class. It fired the 1 inch lead balls I used in my cannon. While he was dialing it in, it sometimes would launch backwards. It would fire a ball a long ways.

I later converted it into a baseball pitching machine.

[roamer_1]

My son built a small, but powerful, trebuchet for HS physics class. It fired the 1 inch lead balls I used in my cannon. While he was dialing it in, it sometimes would launch backwards. It would fire a ball a long ways.

I later converted it into a baseball pitching machine.

Two words:

PUNKIN CHUNKIN

w00t! 

[Hoodat]

Two words:

PUNKIN CHUNKIN

w00t! 

[roamer_1]

That's one of the funnest things you could ever do... WAY more fun than a stock car or demo car. 

[Elderberry]

Here's a pic of my son's school project trebuchet, but after I converted it to a spring powered baseball pitching machine. As a trebuchet my son had it powered with around 50lbs of barbell weights.

[GtHawk]

Two words:

PUNKIN CHUNKIN

w00t! 

I missed it, stupid Covid lockdowns! They're supposed to be back this year, and I say if Fauci screws it up they should stuff his ass in one of the cannons and launch him.

[roamer_1]

I missed it, stupid Covid lockdowns! They're supposed to be back this year, and I say if Fauci screws it up they should stuff his ass in one of the cannons and launch him.

We went from trebuchet to a full on air cannon just maybe a year before the lockdown... Did poorly, as it ain't dialed in very well yet... missed it the last couple years, mostly because of the rebuild to make it better - Just never found the time. And I want to put it on it's own trailer too.

But man, am I looking forward to this year. The only thing to keep me off it this year is if the elk are low early on... which almost never happens.