Why Fly a Rocket, Take the Elevator

How did they get a patent when most of the "science" they are touting seems more like theory rather than reality.

Shouldn't they have a working prototype to receive a patent?

most patents are issued on ideas, not an actual product, its an old system that rarely works for the little guy

Shouldn't they have a working prototype to receive a patent?

That's the way it should work, but if that were the case a lot of the patents issued would mean we would have to throw away all the science books.

http://www.google.com/patents/US20070246939

Another problem with the patent system is allowing the patent trolls to patent everything imaginable, whether unique or not, just to use to sue other companies and extort money from them.

It's totally out of control. I don't know if it's possible to ever rein it back in.

Space elevators seems way too risky to me.

I think a better system would be a magnetic rail lunch system placed in a high desert region, such as the Atacama in South America. It has an altitude of around 10,000 feet, an arid climate, and is about the same distance from the equator as Kennedy Space Center.

I proposed this design several years ago, last I heard somebody was building one somewhere in the SE US....but I could be wrong....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-rocket_spacelaunch

Disney World.

Ok, they're launching at 9000 m/s, lets run some numbers...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver

If you figure the centrifugal acceleration a = v²/r, for a 1g acceleration outward (vector 1.414 g at 45 degrees), r=(9000)²/9.8 = 8265 km. That's going to be a really big circle!

If you make it a reasonable size, the g force would be tremendous and the support would have to be very strong, not to mention killing the astronauts.

it would never work

These would be unmanned solid satellites...the circumference was backed with about 10 ft of concrete.... the object would continue around the loop until reaching desired speed at which point a gated section would release to the straight ramp....at least that was the original idea....

How big is the radius?

Is the acceleration channel a vacuum?

How do you support the payload frictionlessly against enormous g forces?

How does it get accelerated?

Will the payloads be able to change orbit above the atmosphere? (Just shooting them up, of course, would be in an orbit that intercepts the earth.)

It's an interesting idea, but it seems like there are a lot of details to figure out.

I don't know how big the radius is, last I heard a prototype was built and they had plans to build a larger one....Yes the interior is in vacuum....the payload is supported magnetically, it gets accelerated by magnetic impulse and repulsive drive system....as far as I know the concept has not been proven for earth orbit....the design may have been changed, tweaked or abandoned altogether....it was a long time ago....

You gotta admit, it makes a heckuva gun!

Great minds think alike. That looks exactly like a concept I proposed quite a number of years ago.

I can see that a hurricane, jet stream, or a thunderstorm could be an inconveniece.

I'm still looking for the man sitting with the flute.

Not much better than the good old "tested" method (by Jules Verne), that of getting shot to space from a cannon barrel. S.M.

Bigelow Aerospace might learn something here by making their inflatable habitats into a launch vehicles.

Instead of elevating to a platform, launch the inflatable space vehicle from the bottom...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYNCGZCul1Q

Controlled release when transporting passengers of course.

Also, cargo and passengers alike, take a cargo airship, at low cost, up to the inflated structure.

http://theblueeconomy.com/Cases_files/80%20Cargo%20by%20Airship.pdf (Sorry! Link no longer available.)