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Moonshot Space raises $12M to launch payloads to lower atmosphere at 8km/s

• Protostome 10mo ago
  What am i missing here? physics hackers, please explain. does their claim of reaching 8 km/s in earth's atomsphere make sense? how is it possible without an insane amount of energy? Besides, how are you going to deliver this energy in such a short time without frying the entire system, we're talking probably 1000A+ currents flowing in insane voltages. You'd rather use TNT or some high explosive, that's what is usually done with artillery, and even then you don't get close to 8 km/s as far as i know.
  • LargoLasskhyfv 10mo ago
    I'd guess it will be somewhere between https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_Aircraft_Launch_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_Aircraft_Launc... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarTram https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarTram We'll see. Or not.
  • jfengel 10mo ago
    No, 8 km/s doesn't make sense. It's really hard to tell from the press release, but it sounds as if they're talking about a railgun kinda thing. Which has been discussed before, and it keeps not working out. The strains on the object are too great.