Rockets with no Rocket
 |
| (Image Credit: CleanTechnica) |
Science! For those of you who like space and exploration and technologies to further space exploration, then take a gander at this.
SpinLaunch is a new company founded by Jonathan Yaney in 2014.
 |
| (Photo of Jonathan Yaney: Photo Credit: LinkedIn) |
Currently as of 2020 the company has raised over $80 million in funding with top investors which include Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures, Airbus Ventures, Catapult Ventures, Lauder Partners, John Doerr and Byers Family.
What is SpinLaunch? Well it's a Aerospace Company dedicated to sending goods into space without the use of rockets. Basically rocket ships without any rocket to propel the craft into space.
How is this possible? Mr. Yaney has a very intriguing method in propelling things into space by the use of what is called a "Centrifuge" A Centrifuge is a device that puts an object in rotation around a fixed axis (spins it in a circle) applying force perpendicular to the axis.
Think of a washer machine, as it rotates clockwise to spin the clothes and keeps rotating faster and faster. Now picture that but 100 x's faster and at a grander scale. In fact, take a look at the following picture below.
 |
| (Image Credit: Wired) |
As you can see, it's not a normal mechanism, it is called the Kinetic Launch System. This will be the center piece of how the craft will gain momentum & speed to be hurled out of the ground and into the sky. However Mr. Yaney stated in an interview saying that "This isn’t something new that SpinLaunch is doing—we are simply following in the footsteps of previous work,”. The previous work he is mentioning is about a military project during the Cold War called HARP, in which the United States Army used a giant gun to shoot projectiles into space. HARP proved that it is possible to get to space without the use of a rocket.
The difference with this Kinetic Launch System in verse of the giant gun the military used, is that this Centrifuge will be as large as a football field, the rocket will be on the "Tether" rotating counterclockwise for about an hour steadily ramping up to speeds well over 5,000 mph, then once the launch speed has been reached the Centrifuge will release the rocket (Space Craft) through the "Launch Tunnel" sending it screaming into the stratosphere, then with a small boost by use of a engine for a final nudge into orbit. To have a visual of the travels this will have to go through, check out the diagram below of the levels in our atmosphere.
 |
| (Image Credit: UCAR Center for Science Education) |
More than likely SpinLaunch is hoping that the craft will be able to reach the Mesosphere, then with the help of that small engine, should boost it out into orbit.
Very interesting concept, I think with further testing and more improvements we can see this actually happening on a professional level in the foreseeable future. Yaney predicts that SpinLaunch would be able to launch as many as 5 times a day, transporting goods and even people. We'll see how long it'll take until that can happen.
SpinLaunch will be testing it's very first suborbital launch later this year, so stay tuned for that as I will be sure to cover that story when it happens.
For more information & further details on this article, check out the link below:
Comments
Post a Comment