Can We Throw Satellites to Space? - SpinLaunch

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Credits:
Writer/Narrator: Brian McManus
Editor: Dylan Hennessy
Animator: Mike Ridolfi
Animator: Eli Prenten
Modelling: Sam Carter
Sound: Graham Haerther
Henry Ariza - Camera Operator and Color
Jamon Tolbert - Camera Operator
Gina Giorgi - Production Coordinator
Donovan Bullen - Music
Thumbnail: Simon Buckmaster

Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images
Thank you to AP Archive for access to their archival footage.

Thank you to my patreon supporters: Adam Flohr, Henning Basma, Hank Green, William Leu, Tristan Edwards, Ian Dundore, John & Becki Johnston. Nevin Spoljaric, Jason Clark, Thomas Barth, Johnny MacDonald, Stephen Foland, Alfred Holzheu, Abdulrahman Abdulaziz Binghaith, Brent Higgins, Dexter Appleberry, Alex Pavek, Marko Hirsch, Mikkel Johansen, Hibiyi Mori. Viktor Józsa, Ron Hochsprung

[RealEngineering]

This has been in the works for about 3 months now. Our first full documentary shoot. There is a lot of negativity in the comments from people who have not even watched the video yet. This channel is about being positive about engineering. Encouraging and inspiring the next generation of engineers. If you are looking for a channel that focuses on being negative and adds nothing to world, you have come to the wrong place. It's so much easier to point out what's hard, than using your brain to think of solutions. That's not what engineers do. We find problems, and then we find solutions. If you don't think a company that's trying to throw satellites into space, and has already built a 1/3rd prototype, isn't insanely cool. I don't know what to do for ye. That's badass. Whether they succeed or not is irrelevant. It's not your investment money they are using, chill out.

[ocscmike]

Oh wow. I love this new format! Great to see you on camera. The quality of this documentary reminds me of the Discovery channel when I was a kid... way back before it got overtaken by reality shows.

[cetomedo]

I find it quite funny that the only piece of technology that was important enough to keep as a trade secret was how to close doors really, really fast.

[jonathanwiedenheft]

“It’s a door closing, I don’t know what to ask”
“It’s really important not til let air back in“
I love engineering XD

[thejesuschrist]

You never disappoint me. This was a glorious video! Thank you.

[viski]

I love that a engineer with a degree used "yeet" as a technical term

[jamestheredd]

The term "yeet" at 5:35 is both a very accurate and a much appreciated addition to this presentation.

[blackdog]

A trebuchet in the shape of a turbocharger, yeeting missiles into space? I love it

[AnnoyingNewslettersPage]

I would love to see something like this built on the moon for launching unmanned missions further into space.

[Qualle]

5:35 "SpinLaunch aims to YEET its aeroshell..."

It's so simple, yet so incredibly funny.

[AlchemistCH]

I think I see why the release mechanism was kept a secret. It's another ultra-fine timed system.
You can't just release the capsule from a centrifuge and expect it fly like a bullet. It will be tossed in a straight line, yes, but it still will be spinning at the same angular velocity!
So it has to be two locks (may be more, but that gets even more complicated), releasing the front one first and letting the rear one impart the angular momentum to stop the bullet from spinning and then releasing it just in time.

[tristanwegner]

the lower graph at 32:14 has to be wrong. In 10seconds it claims it reaches a height of 160km, which means an average speed of 16.000m/s. Which is about mach46, way higher than the plan to use.

[GregConquest]

@18:54 When the secondary door closes, it appears to be a pressurized fabric, very much like a car airbag, which are also super fast in deployment. They would also release minimal air into the system. I guess once sealed, then the regular door can be more slowly slid into place. Interesting workaround for this problem.

[poshhippie]

As a rule, I never listen to guys with mustaches and ponytails tell me about how legit their startup is... But this is sick so I want it to be true

[ghrrum]

This was beautifully done, good job and thanks!

[sexyshadowcat]

This launch system will really find use when launching from airless moons.

[oncorhynchusnerka]

There has to be an error in the altitude vs time graph at 32:16… they’re going at Mach 6 (i.e. 2 km/s at MSL), yet you have them riding up to nearly 80 km of altitude in just 1 second. At that point you’ve got an interplanetary mass driver on your hands

[growlith]

Climbing a ladder while drinking coffee "Safety third!". Haha, I like these guys. Also, 13:57, both mechanical air pump styles he sited would be superchargers, not turbochargers. The latter being an impeller wheel turned by the flow of exhaust gasses, the former being a screw type mechanically turned kind of thingy.

[andrewzeilbeck]

I'm nowhere near an engineer. But, just curious, rather than releasing an equal mass counterweight for balance that requires clean-up (and I assume dirties up the vacuum), could the counterweight be a magnetic load that simply gets turned off at the time of release?

[timsullivan]

One of my favorite videos thus far from this channel. Neither dumbed-down nor overly-challenging - I think you found the Goldilocks "Just right" level.