Launching rockets into space with a centrifuge is the kind of exotic sci-fi technology I love to see people try, but I notice I'm confused about how this could possibly work. Can any physics people clear this up?https://www.wired.com/story/inside-spinlaunch-the-space-industrys-best-kept-secret/ …
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"In one test, Yaney attached an iPhone to the tether and spun it up until it experienced forces 10,000 times stronger than gravity. Afterward, he used the phone to FaceTime a colleague."
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An iPhone weights about 1/3 a lb. Accelerating it to 10,000G makes it effectively weigh 3300lb. Isn't that similar to putting a 1.7 ton weight on it? SpinLaunch is talking about launching 200lb payloads, which would effectively weigh 2 million lb at peak acceleration.
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Also, air resistance is proportional to velocity SQUARED - which means staring with all your speed at the beginning of your trajectory is a worst case scenario for momentum lost to air resistance.
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seems impossible for the same reasons spaceguns are a bad idea, it's the atmospheric resistance.
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