I wondered if there might be a connection; I've got a slick briefing
package on Slingatron from, let's see, 2007. But it pretty much dropped
off the radar. And it doesn't look like the originator of the concept,
or any of the people who were working on it as of 2013, are at
SlingLaunch (could be hiding their affiliation, of course).
Slingatron is a neat concept, as you say very steampunk, but it looks
like a horrid dynamic loads environment for the sort of lightweight
structure that would be needed to go the remaining 85% of the way to
orbit on rocket thrust.
John Schilling
john.schilling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(661) 718-0955
On 2/23/2018 9:42 AM, William Claybaugh wrote:
I got briefed of this year’s ago, it was called “Slingatron” at that point.
It seemed—to me—very amusing; a sort of mid-nineteenth century engineering solution to throwing things pretty hard. Maybe a fun high school science fair project.
I agree that the idea that VC’s actually understand their investments is suspect in some cases....
Bill
On Fri, Feb 23, 2018 at 10:05 AM John Schilling <john.schilling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:john.schilling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Yes, and if you can get around the gravity, the propulsion
requirements pretty much go away.
Even if you could get around the heating, that's not enough. You
need to get around the heating, and the drag, and the lateral G
loading during spin launch, all of that, without compromising the
design to the extent that your structural coefficient grows by
more than maybe 0.01 - 0.02; otherwise you're farther from orbit
when you leave the catapult than you would be sitting on the pad
with a rocket that doesn't have to deal with all that.
If you tell me your system is planning to reach orbit, I want to
see plain cylindrical or conical tanks / motor cases. Simple
fairings or even wings bolted onto the cylinders, fine, but not
pointy-nose aerodynamic sleekness or a TPS rated for hypersonic
flight at sea level.
John Schilling
john.schilling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:john.schilling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
(661) 718-0955
On 2/22/2018 10:30 PM, Bernard Pritchard wrote:
Actually, if he can get around the heating, the G-forces can be
held to a very acceptable minimum. It all comes down to the
radius of his launcher. Do the math for yourselves.
Bernie Pritchard.
On Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 10:04 PM, Lars Osborne
<lars.osborne@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:lars.osborne@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
The next time anyone claims that V.C.'s are careful investors
who look at technology fundamentals, I will show them this.
Thanks,
Lars Osborne
On Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 9:45 PM, Ben Brockert
<wikkit@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:wikkit@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
I've been hearing rumors of them for months. They finally
came out of stealth, and are as silly as the name implies.
https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/22/spinlaunch/amp/
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__techcrunch.com_2018_02_22_spinlaunch_amp_&d=DwMFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=rPTfWqtJdrL0Ber-yr0E_hSjRXuvJH6ZmQx03u8-2as&m=hbqE1lS_NdVVeeLPmyIl6pnPAi7wQMtkYBEnHvL9_oQ&s=f93RNxdGGOTWqWasfHYgtJS5PAbUwqFdHQsNh9O6Vuc&e=>