He also cites military rockets
Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2025 10:19 am
Only a small fraction of a rocket's mass is used to carry the payload, the rest is used for fuel. In aerospace circles, this is called the "tyranny of the rocket equation." That's why rockets that launch a satellite the weight of a car into orbit are the size of a skyscraper.
But if you can launch a rocket into space without that much fuel, you can make it smaller, with the bulk of the mass being taken up by the payload. Moreover, the rocket engine doesn't necessarily have to be efficient, since the centrifuge does most of the heavy lifting.
In a centrifuge, once the rocket has spun up to the required speed, a shutter opens for a split second, sending it into space. According to the company's patents, at the same moment a counterweight is released to compensate for the imbalance and vibration of the cable.
Centrifuge prototype
The rocket fires its engines at an altitude of about 60 km: there is practically no atmosphere there, so a minute of engine operation is enough to accelerate to an orbital speed of 27 thousand km/h. Another launch lasts about 10 seconds, it helps the rocket enter orbit. At least according to Yana.
The rocket was disassembled when Wired visited. The startup’s CEO did not show a video of the device in action. Instead, he insisted that SpinLaunch’s mathematicians had calculated everything correctly.
Airbus Ventures, Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins and other qatar number data investors invested about $75 million in the project, and in 2019, the US Department of Defense awarded the startup a contract to develop a centrifuge.
Before giving the money, one of the investors asked aerospace engineer Juan Alonso from Stanford to check the calculations. He was skeptical about the project, but after checking, he gave the investor the green light.
Criticism of the project
Many engineers are skeptical of SpinLaunch because of the load on the rocket. Rockets typically handle only 5-7 g, but in SpinLaunch's case, it's up to 10,000 g. Aerospace engineer David Erlin of the University of Southern California believes that neither the rocket nor the electrical system can handle that much.
One former employee of the startup, who spoke to Wired on condition of anonymity, said that there was “a gap” between theory and reality. According to him, the SpinLaunch prototype is a relatively simple machine that can be assembled by a regular team of engineers.
Scaling it for full-fledged launches with startup resources will be “very difficult,” including due to the inexperience of management, which “lacked the insight to foresee the many problems.”
But Jani sees the team’s inexperience as an advantage, as they are “full of energy” to see what will happen. , which can withstand a thousand times the force of gravity, as an example, and says the startup’s rocket will be much stronger than conventional launch vehicles. The company has already filed patents for stronger solar cells and assemblies.
But if you can launch a rocket into space without that much fuel, you can make it smaller, with the bulk of the mass being taken up by the payload. Moreover, the rocket engine doesn't necessarily have to be efficient, since the centrifuge does most of the heavy lifting.
In a centrifuge, once the rocket has spun up to the required speed, a shutter opens for a split second, sending it into space. According to the company's patents, at the same moment a counterweight is released to compensate for the imbalance and vibration of the cable.
Centrifuge prototype
The rocket fires its engines at an altitude of about 60 km: there is practically no atmosphere there, so a minute of engine operation is enough to accelerate to an orbital speed of 27 thousand km/h. Another launch lasts about 10 seconds, it helps the rocket enter orbit. At least according to Yana.
The rocket was disassembled when Wired visited. The startup’s CEO did not show a video of the device in action. Instead, he insisted that SpinLaunch’s mathematicians had calculated everything correctly.
Airbus Ventures, Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins and other qatar number data investors invested about $75 million in the project, and in 2019, the US Department of Defense awarded the startup a contract to develop a centrifuge.
Before giving the money, one of the investors asked aerospace engineer Juan Alonso from Stanford to check the calculations. He was skeptical about the project, but after checking, he gave the investor the green light.
Criticism of the project
Many engineers are skeptical of SpinLaunch because of the load on the rocket. Rockets typically handle only 5-7 g, but in SpinLaunch's case, it's up to 10,000 g. Aerospace engineer David Erlin of the University of Southern California believes that neither the rocket nor the electrical system can handle that much.
One former employee of the startup, who spoke to Wired on condition of anonymity, said that there was “a gap” between theory and reality. According to him, the SpinLaunch prototype is a relatively simple machine that can be assembled by a regular team of engineers.
Scaling it for full-fledged launches with startup resources will be “very difficult,” including due to the inexperience of management, which “lacked the insight to foresee the many problems.”
But Jani sees the team’s inexperience as an advantage, as they are “full of energy” to see what will happen. , which can withstand a thousand times the force of gravity, as an example, and says the startup’s rocket will be much stronger than conventional launch vehicles. The company has already filed patents for stronger solar cells and assemblies.