[AR] Re: Spin.

  • From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2021 13:42:05 -0500 (EST)

On Thu, 11 Nov 2021, Anton de Winter wrote:

...it looked like the launcher would provide (iirc) ~25-30% of the delta V required for orbit which didn't seem like much and therefore not worth all the hassle.  However, I didn't take atmospheric drag into consideration at all.  Maybe that makes things work out better?

Worse -- it means the projectile is slamming through thick air at high speed, producing nasty aerodynamic and thermal loads, and a substantial negative delta-V from drag, whereas an ordinary liquid-fuel rocket reaches such speeds only at high altitude in much thinner air.

Henry

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