SPIN LAUNCH

 

Is there a way to get to space without a rocket ?

Since the dawn of astronautics the only method we have to reach space is using rockets .To determine the quantity of fuel needed to bring an object into orbit scientists use a famous equation  called ‘’the equation of the rocket ‘’.

                                              

 

The equation essentially  says that if you want to get faster you need more fuel which  will increase the mass of the vehicle so you will need more fuel that still increases the mass of the vehicle… thus this is a sort of vicious circle .

For instance the  Saturn V ( the rocket that brought the first humans to the surface of the Moon ) was made up of fuel for 90% of its total mass and in this historical period it is fundamental to find a more fuel-efficient technology .

 

However, there is a solution, it is named ‘’Spin Launch’’ and I'd like to tell you something more about the American company and their technology which may revolutionize astronautics.            

The aim of the company                    

With industry plans to launch ten times the number of satellites over the next decade, it is more urgent than ever to develop environmentally sustainable space access technology. Since kinetically launched satellites exit the atmosphere without a rocket, Spin Launch enables a future in which constellations of satellites and space payloads can be launched with zero emissions in the most critical layers of the atmosphere. 

In a future when large numbers of people will be travelling to space — structures, equipment, and supplies required to support in-space civilization must also be launched. For tens of thousands of people to someday work and live in space, millions of tons of infrastructure and supplies must be launched. Spin Launch ensures that it can be done with the least environmental impact possible. 

 The accelerator     

Spin launch is a circular accelerator installed in a vacuum chamber: a huge ‘’clock’’ whose hand spins with a velocity of thousands of kilometers per hour . The  rocket is placed at the edge of the hand ready to be hurled when it reaches the right speed to leave lower layers of the atmosphere.

Only in the higher layers of the atmosphere  the engines of the rocket are activated in order to adjust its orbit.                                            

 

On 22nd October, Spin Launch hit its first  launch test using a ‘’scaled down’’ accelerator in New Mexico  which measures 33 meters in diameter and 50,4 meters  in height . It was powered only at one fifth of its capacity and managed to hurl a 3 meters passive projectile to a height of over three kilometers.  Moreover,  the huge  ‘’centrifuge ‘’ spinning at 180 rpm scored a new world record as the fastest spinning object. 

 The advantages

 The advantages of Spin Launch are numerous:  first of all we can save fuel since rocket engines are fired only from the high atmosphere; actually,  the hand rotation has an  electric nature.

Doing so you also save money; for example,  bringing a small satellite into orbit costs around 700 million dollars, with Spin Launch they'll spend only 50M .

While the  actual size accelerator is being built, Spin Launch will continue testing the smaller one  all through 2022. First customer launches are planned around late 2024.

Giordano C., 5sc