A slingshot to space

A U.S. company has plans to use a high-tech mass accelerator to 'throw' a payload into space

Bob McDonald · CBC Radio · Posted: Jan 24, 2020 2:38 PM ET | Last Updated: January 24

A private startup company called Spinlaunch could be the first to throw a payload into space rather than use a rocket for primary propulsion.

The company has said that it's received millions of dollars in funding, and a prototype launch contract from the U.S. Department of Defence for its technology.

The company is apparently developing a kind of spinning slingshot that will hurl projectiles up from the ground at high velocity in an attempt to lower the cost of spaceflight.

Spinlaunch was founded several years ago, and has been remarkably secretive about its technology. The small amount of information they've released indicates that they will use a "mass accelerator" to fling a dart-shaped vehicle at incredible speeds into the sky. A chemical rocket would then be ignited to finish boosting the vehicle into space.

More:
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/a-slingshot-to-space-1.5439638?cmp=rss

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Spinlaunch is using large centrifuges to accelerate to payloads into space – target $500,000 per launch
Brian Wang | February 24, 2018



SpinLaunch is raising $30 million to use large centrifuges to power catapult to launch payloads into space. They use large centrifuges to store energy and will then rapidly transfer that momentum into a catapult to send a payload to space at up to 4,800 kilometers per hour (3,000 mph). If successful, the acceleration architecture is projected to be both lower cost and use much less power, with the price of a single space launch reduced to under US$500,000.

SpinLaunch was founded in 2014 by Jonathan Yaney, who previously started Titan Aerospace, a solar-powered drone company and subsequently sold it to Google. They raised $1 million in equity in 2014, the year SpinLaunch was founded, $2.9 million in equity in 2015, $2.2 million in debt in mid-2017 and another $2 million in debt in late 2017. SpinLaunch has raised a total of $10 million to date.

Last month, a bill was proposed in the Hawaii state senate to issue $25 million in bonds to assist SpinLaunch with “constructing a portion of its electrical small satellite launch system.”

SpinLaunch employs a rotational acceleration method, harnessing angular momentum to gradually accelerate the vehicle to hypersonic speeds. This approach employs a dramatically lower cost architecture with much lower power.” SpinLaunch is targeting a per-launch price of less than $500,000.

More:
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/02/spinlaunch-is-using-large-centrifuges-to-accelerate-to-payloads-into-space-target-500000-per-launch.html