NASA has been looking for viable alternatives to rocket launches for some time. Specifically, the high fuel consumption involved in each of the launches and the millions of investment that evaporate in just a few seconds. In this sense, one of these projects consists of a sort of slingshot to launch unpowered ships into space. The project, which was approved in 2021, has just successfully passed its first test. Hand in hand with SpinLaunch, the company that created the rocket launcher, NASA is a little closer to saving millions of fuel for space conquest. And also to launch rockets left and right.
The project of SpinLaunch It bears little resemblance to a conventional launch pad. It could well resemble a giant antenna or even a vacuum cleaner – one of the automatic ones. The model is based on a kinetic system in which, in simple c terms, what is achieved is launch objects outside creating a giant slingshot. In this case, the launched object would be a spacecraft that would have to reach enough speed to be able to dispense with the propulsion engines.
The space slingshot project for NASA, which has been under study since 2015, has a diameter of 91 meters and reached speeds of almost 8,047 kilometers per hour. Spinning on itself and functioning like a disc or frisbie, the ship would remain anchored to the platform until it reached the required speed. Then she would simply fly out of a tube to take her place in space. Explained for laymen, the visual effect is that of a confetti bomb exploding in the air.
Does this mean that you could do without launch fuel entirely? For the moment, they are realistic and assume that there is still a long time to reach the zero point, but they point to a four times reduction in fuel and a saving of 10 times the cost of a traditional launch. This would undoubtedly be a success for NASA, since it would increase the volume of launches and reduce their cost considerably. A goal that the space agency has been pursuing for many years.
A slingshot for all NASA missions?
Is it used to launch NASA spacecraft with humans? Its founder, Jonathan Yaney, answers this question in a simple way. “It’s a revolutionary approach to launching satellites into space”. An answer that makes perfect sense, taking into account that the weight of the load must be as low as possible and the risks for the human load in this type of launch are greater. The satellites selected for this type of launch would have to be prepared, on the other hand, to withstand the speed to which they will have to be subjected before launch.
With a successful test at its New Mexico headquarters since October, this space slingshot will continue testing its method throughout 2022. It is expected that NASA, and the rest of the company’s clients, will be able to access the system throughout 2024 to be put into practice in the following years.
This model, together with Elon Musk’s SpaceX launch rocket recovery model, represents a revolution in NASA’s space conquest sector. Based on cost savings and efficiency, new companies in the space sector have sought this maxim for years. The space slingshot cuts launch costs, just like Elon Musk’s sea landing pads, in which we have been able to see hundreds of rockets land vertically, extend the useful life of equipment with millions of dollars in cost and, in the words of Musk, waste.