Slingatron shoots stuff into space on the cheap

Back to the basics, a gyroscopic hull with the rotation occurring in the outer hull, magnetic separators. It might just be a smooth ride

The escape velocity from earth is about 25000 mph or 36666ft/sec. The acceleration in g's (V² / R)/32.2 if the radius of curvature is a mile still works out to be about 7900 g's. This thing is going to have to be really big and really strong.

Thats quite interesting, if your disc had a radius of 1/2 a mile (1 mile diameter) it would be spinning at about 4.4 revs a second! Thats beyond impressive, thats way over the sheer terror event horizon!

Makes me think of the device in the movie Contact. Obviously smaller and for a different purpose but the scene where the first unit comes apart has pieces traveling a substantial distance.

Hey yes! I'd forgotten that. Impressive effects of huge chunks of debris flying all over the place.

At 1/2 mile radius, we're up to 16000 g. Makes the rollercoasters at the theme parks look rather tame.

1. I don't understand the "cheap" part.

2. I don't like sitting on an airplane next to the engine. I wouldn't want to be on the same continent with this thing!

1. I don't understand the "cheap" part.

Compared to the $10,000 a pound although they don't provide a cost comparision. Also, you don't have all those nasty chemicals to deal with without the rocket propellants.

2. I don't like sitting on an airplane next to the engine.I wouldn't want to be on the same continent with this thing!

You should read Michael Crichton's 'Airframe' for some intersting perspective on planes and engines. Its fictional but the technical references on that level are real enough.

We are sitting in a terrarium with fires burning and watching the CO2 climb. Isn't that scarier than being next to an airplane engine that probably won't fly apart?

Nope not one bit, sorry it looks like we have done it before, perhaps a couple of times. the airplane is a conundrum, it should not fly anyway. Depending on the last stop the engine might not even be functioning, oh well. What time did that stop over take place, happy hour? You know it's all "A-OKAY"

Not a bit. I dont worry about either the CO2 or the airplane engine. There are real enough problems out there without concerning myself over either issue.

Want to reduce the CO2 by half. Breathe every other day.

There isn't much reason to worry about the airplane engine - it has had a lot of competent attention. The CO2 problem however hasn't, and "solutions" like ethanol will probably make it worse.

Gyroscopic precession may also be of interest when calculating strength requirements, since the device either needs to be rigidly aligned all the time, or permitted to precess freely from a calculated starting position while winding up, timing things so that it is correctly aligned just at the instant of release. At that point, the whole thing is unbalanced, unless a dummy payload is released in the opposite direction simultaneously - which may satisfy the interest expressed in post #3 about observing impacts at 25,000 mph. I cannot see the faintest advantage of this concept over the "rail gun" electromagnetic launcher proposed for the western slopes of the Rocky mountains (using the earth's rotation and eastward launches). But I can see a lot of DISadvantages!

It would be pretty cool if they timed the release wrong, you never really get to see a projectile smashing into something at 25,000 miles an hour.

Get a telescope to see the results of such speed demons, as hit every neighboring planet, some numerous times per year, leaving a sure indication of what the stop might be like.

Beats the hell out bungee cords

A verry effective heat shield will be necessary for the projectile leaving the Slingatron. Because to achieve orbit the initial velocity when leaving the Slingatron will need to be in excess of the velocity required to maintain orbit. We all know what kind of heat sheilding is required for reentry into the atmosphere. My guess is that if a machine can be built strong enough to accelerate a ball bearing ball to around 20,000 mph that it would vaporize in the first 10 miles of travel.

Now you have gone and done it, a ground based weapon that hurls steel ball bearings, coated in diamond dust, at tanks, ships, troops, ground structure could be re-vulcanized. Easy to make easy to load millions of packets of the balls pinging along at liquid speeds non-stoppable for did you say ten miles? I see missile defense applications already. Can we buy stock?

Mounted on the orbiting fleets of the spacefarers' nations collective junk piles, we now have a planet wide cosmic slap to get their attention. Damn scary stuff I really mean it can I buy stock?

So, after the friction equal to 2 miles of travel (equivalent to climbing through 14.7 lbs of air per square inch) at a final velocity of 18,000 MPH (26,400 ft/sec), plus the kinetic energy of an altitude of 200 miles, and assuming you could load your satellite to an average density of s.p. 13 or so, including the outbound heat shield so that a reasonable (say 50%) friction loss, that means that the release speed could be as low as 52,000 ft/sec. How many joules or kwh would it require to get a pint sized 10 pound sputnik to this velocity? Don't forget to include the 10 pounds of water to be released from the opposite side of the machine at the same speed. Oh,yeah What was the name of that forest in Russia? Tongaska? Don't worry, that blast will be down into the ground. It may never touch the ground.

RichH

+how much energy to accelerate the "marry-go-round" ? how much energy recovered to slow it down for the next launch ?

All we need is a means to store truly massive amounts of energy. I know, we can compress air, then release it to launch a second vehicle.

RichH

It would be cheaper to keep it going, load from the centre maybe?

in which direction would it spin? with the rotation of the earth or against?

Since the centripetal forces

You cannot launch an object with a centripedal force since its directed to the center line but usin a centrifugal one you may pearhaps reach your goal.