New technology aims to put a whole new spin on space travel

A new form of technology is trying to send items into space with an innovative new method. The SpinLaunch aims to reduce the carbon footprint of space travel by using a vacuum chamber to launch objects. Jeff Glor has more.

#news #space #technology

"CBS Saturday Morning" co-hosts Jeff Glor, Michelle Miller and Dana Jacobson deliver two hours of original reporting and breaking news, as well as profiles of leading figures in culture and the arts. Watch "CBS Saturday Morning" at 7 a.m. ET on CBS and 8 a.m. ET on the CBS News app.

[ThermalGoguh]

"How do you get satellites into orbit?"
"We basically just throw them really hard."

[Guide]

The issue is the projectiles are limited in payload as the payload has to be designed to withstand the launch system, rather than it's primary mission upon delivery.

[tlo]

Hate 2 see what happens when it miss the exit by millisecond 💥

[Itsjustme]

how in the world do they possibly get the timing down too that precision too launch out perfectly through that machine. This is truly

[a-aron]

How it doesn't destroy itself upon release is quite impressive, that's a huge amount of unbalanced weight to be spinning.

[Alexander_Kale]

At this point I am beginning to think that this is really a stealth pitch to the military instead of a space launch system. Change the launch arm to a wheel so you can launch multiple projectiles at once, spin it up to sub orbital speeds and you could deliver a dozen or more payloads weighting multiple tons each to any point on the planet.

Even if you can only get the range up to a thousand miles or something along those lines it would still make for one hell of an artillery piece.

[Simone_]

It is always pleasure and pleasing to meet ones who were supposed to work. Thankyou congratulations. Thankyou for visiting me.

[OhNoNotAgain]

ACME Centrifugal Space Cannon. Wyle E. Coyote. Super Genius.

[christopherfairs]

As large as that structure is, I find it hard to believe it contains 2.2 million tons of steel. That would be about 30% of the total annual UK steel output and be worth at least 4 billion dollars, without cost of construction.

[ExiledGypsy]

Imagine building that in space. That could really speed things up without waiting.

[Rouleau]

I am skeptical that this technology would work. To many issues I can see with this, for example the machine would need to be much larger and spin much faster to reach the needed escape velocity needed. The larger it gets would make it harder to reach the near vacuum the needed inside the chamber. As the machine spins faster how will they keep it stable and have it release at the right moment.

[rahrahrobbbieee]

There is so far zero evidence that this approach can scale to the speeds and masses needed to be useful.
SpinLaunch doesn't talk or outright bullies anyone who tries to question the necessary engineering breakthroughs to make this work.

[jlvandat]

Begs the projectile and payload must both withstand immense G-loading, so that would seriously limit the types of permissible payload and also require intense engineering of the projectile and any systems/components carried. Seems like a very limited scope launch system albeit much lower cost per mission. Most of the G-load concerns would go away if this was a linear launch system but would require an extremely long 400 miles if acceleration is 5g to reach 5000 mph (guestimated velocity to reach low-earth orbit as per this video) which likely explains his circular launch concept.

[TheBeardedAtheist]

In the videos you can see some of them go through at an angle which would slow them down incredibly. They had this issue months ago, if they fix it great, but the launches aren’t consistent. If they can get it working properly you could send satellites in pieces and connect them via a remote control or something

[donaldkasper]

The exit release off by microseconds, the projectile slams into the exit port walls and the whole thing blows up. Just a matter of time as to when that happens. In the meantime, no people can be launched with it, and the electronics of most devices get shattered without major reinforcement, adding to weight. Really, a rocket launch system. That means the base should be pivotable on a rotational axis to aim it.

[ramontorres]

Wouldn't this be more efficient if this is done closer to the equator so as to leverage the earth's spin?

[rpercifieldjr]

Looking at this system there many issues:
1. How out of balance with the system be at full size when you release the mass? The higher the rotational velocity the greater the force applied. This is a V^2 relationship, where when you double the velocity the force increases by 4. When the mass is released, the force for the counterbalance will be in the opposite direction will be the same and unless there is somewhere to either drop the mass or stop the rotation rapidly, the system will fly apart.

2. At 5, 000 files per hour debris from the breakable seal holding the vacuum with be very damaging to the projectile launched. At 5, 000mph that is the equivalent to 7, 333 feet per second. Anything capable of holding 14psi of pressure out in an opening that large is going to cause a lot of damage. Having the projectile breaking through it may look cool, but it is a disaster for the object traveling at that speed.

3. When the projectile encounters the atmosphere at 5, 000mph both the shock and ram pressure heating will be tremendous. The only materials to be able to survive that are either ceramic, and or Carbon/Carbon structures. The carbon structures do not do well with impacts, and the ceramic's are very heavy.

This is nothing more than snake oil being sold to low resolution thinking individuals. Just these three issues alone make this implausible, and there are many more. Any time someone tells me that this is ecologically sound, alarm bell go foo saying "Scam Alert".

[LionElAtonArt]

This is absolutely mindblowing! Always wondered why spinning launchers and long rail guns weren’t attempted to launch things into space. Amazing to see it being tried.

[todoloco]

Amazing. Happy that we have clever folks like this in the US

[electric]

This sounds like something that works in theory, but is massively impractical in reality.