5 ms·
> I prefer the failure modes of an aircraft to those of a rocket. Then you would hate a launch loop. A flexible steel rod traveling at above orbital velocity a
by theothermkn 8y ago
> I prefer the failure modes of an aircraft to those of a rocket.
Then you would hate a launch loop. A flexible steel rod traveling at above orbital velocity and magnetically suspended inches away from an enclosing sheath is basically 200 miles of kiloton explosions waiting to happen, followed by an unimaginably large rain of debris.
- GW150914 8y agoAs it points out in the article, for safety and astrodynamic reasons a loop would be situaties over an ocean, and most failure modes would be limited in scope.