SpinLaunch

Slinging satellites into space

Peter Main describes a huge centrifuge being developed to launch satellites into space like an enormous slingshot. Calculations and computer simulations indicate that the present 1/3-scale launcher may work, but enormous problems lie ahead to develop the full-scale version

Peter Main

The SpinLaunch satellite launcher in the New Mexico desert

The terms in bold link to topics in the AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC and CCEA A-level specifications, as well as the IB, Pre-U and SQA exam specifications.

The SpinLaunch system uses a slingshot idea, and to understand this requires calculations involving ideas from circular motion, including angular velocity and centripetal acceleration, as well as ideas from materials science about stress and tensile strength. Calculations of drag forces involving the density of air, as well as ideas about energy transfers and power, are also used.