5 ms·
I wonder how big it would have to be to even consider putting people on it, albeit sleeping ones. A younger me would look up the required velocity and do the ma
by HappyMans 5y ago
I wonder how big it would have to be to even consider putting people on it, albeit sleeping ones. A younger me would look up the required velocity and do the math. A slightly older me is going to sleep soon and will dream that one day he gets to get into the space flinger.
Edit: and not come out as human paste
- kumarvvr 5y agoPeople and many delicate equipment cannot handle such high G forces. I do wonder how a Hyperloop kind of long tunnel, vacuumed out would be a less-G substitute.
- rgmerk 5y agoArthur C Clarke proposed the idea in 1950 in a paper, and wrote a rather excellent short story about the concept (and a wild escape from a launch failure) called "Maelstrom II". In Clarke's story, the launch system is located on the Moon rather than Earth; the lower escape velocity and lack of atmosphere makes the fictional engineering a lot simpler (and allows the climax of the story, which I won't spoil).
- after_care 5y agoI did the math once, and that vacuum hyperloop would be 10s or 100s of km.
- zem 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver
- numpad0 5y agoWhen I was younger those devices were called “mass drivers”. The idea was crude materials would be cut up from moons and asteroids, and launched using maglev rails towards civilization centrals. Or it can also be used for recovery, so long that the landing spacecraft can successfully mate the train. Above is portrayed first, in cases with Sci-Fi novels, then of course something terrible would occur, and the story starts to ramp up. A shivering refugee is found inside, one of containers suspiciously veer off course, the crucial docking latch breaks, etc.
- ptero 5y ago> and not come out as human paste This is a hard part (which sounds impossible to me): since all acceleration needs to be done in a spinner, you need to get to 7900 m/s (even assuming no braking from the atmosphere). And a = v^2 / r will turn living things into a paste for sane r. :(. I would love to be refuted.
- chrisseaton 5y ago> since all acceleration needs to be done in a spinner The payload would have a rocket stage after reaching a certain altitude to further accelerate.
- ptero 5y agoEven if you leave the spinner at "only" 1 km/s and the spinner has a (pretty big) diameter of 2 km, it is 100G.
- m0zg 5y ago> even assuming no braking from the atmosphere "Braking" will commence immediately after exiting the spinner apparatus though. And commence rather unceremoniously. I don't think this is going to carry humans in the foreseeable future.
- Misdicorl 5y agoReally big. Escape velocity is 11km/s. Acceleration in a circle is velocity squared divided by radius. Assuming you can withstand 10g with proper gear and drugs that's a radius of a thousand kilometers.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- noduerme 5y agoWhat about putting up something heavier, like a counterweight and a cable? Suppose the radius of the spool is a lot bigger than the launcher, and there's some kind of clutch / synchro to bring it to speed when it engages...
- Misdicorl 5y agoYou still have to get to 11km/s. I'm not exactly sure what you're suggesting, but it probably results in human paste as well
- NegativeLatency 5y agoNot just 10g but all the time accelerating up to that point
- krallja 5y agoF = ma. For a constant mass, 10g is essentially the acceleration.
- Misdicorl 5y agoI think the point is in addition to the (hopefully) short period at 10g, you'll also spend a significant period of time in the 4-9g regime
- NegativeLatency 5y ago