Can We Throw Satellites to Space? - SpinLaunch 

This has been in the works for about 3 months now. Our first full documentary shoot. There is a lot of negativity in the comments from people who have not even watched the video yet. This channel is about being positive about engineering. Encouraging and inspiring the next generation of engineers. If you are looking for a channel that focuses on being negative and adds nothing to world, you have come to the wrong place. It's so much easier to point out what's hard, than using your brain to think of solutions. That's not what engineers do. We find problems, and then we find solutions. If you don't think a company that's trying to throw satellites into space, and has already built a 1/3rd prototype, isn't insanely cool. I don't know what to do for ye. That's badass. Whether they succeed or not is irrelevant. It's not your investment money they are using, chill out.

I find it quite funny that the only piece of technology that was important enough to keep as a trade secret was how to close doors really, really fast.

“It’s a door closing, I don’t know what to ask” “It’s really important not til let air back in“ I love engineering XD

The term "yeet" at 5:35 is both a very accurate and a much appreciated addition to this presentation.

Oh wow. I love this new format! Great to see you on camera. The quality of this documentary reminds me of the Discovery channel when I was a kid... way back before it got overtaken by reality shows.

You never disappoint me. This was a glorious video! Thank you.

I think I see why the release mechanism was kept a secret. It's another ultra-fine timed system. You can't just release the capsule from a centrifuge and expect it fly like a bullet. It will be tossed in a straight line, yes, but it still will be spinning at the same angular velocity! So it has to be two locks (may be more, but that gets even more complicated), releasing the front one first and letting the rear one impart the angular momentum to stop the bullet from spinning and then releasing it just in time.

This was very interesting and well put together, but one thing I will say that I feel like I have not done anything with my life.. seeing these younger generation doing mind-blowing projects.. it's amazing! KEEP IT UP!

I love that a engineer with a degree used "yeet" as a technical term

I would love to see something like this built on the moon for launching unmanned missions further into space.

the lower graph at 32:14 has to be wrong. In 10seconds it claims it reaches a height of 160km, which means an average speed of 16.000m/s. Which is about mach46, way higher than the plan to use.

This was beautifully done, good job and thanks!

This launch system will really find use when launching from airless moons.

5:35 "SpinLaunch aims to YEET its aeroshell..." It's so simple, yet so incredibly funny.

I'm nowhere near an engineer. But, just curious, rather than releasing an equal mass counterweight for balance that requires clean-up (and I assume dirties up the vacuum), could the counterweight be a magnetic load that simply gets turned off at the time of release?

A masterpiece of ingenuity and engineering.. 💗

There has to be an error in the altitude vs time graph at 32:16… they’re going at Mach 6 (i.e. 2 km/s at MSL), yet you have them riding up to nearly 80 km of altitude in just 1 second. At that point you’ve got an interplanetary mass driver on your hands

Great video! Loved the format!

Really nice video to understand this spinlaunch technique highly appreciated.

Has anyone noticed that the projectile will be rotating about its center. It is rotating as it is attached and stays rotating after it leaves. This effect would explain the change in angle as it exits the membrane. The projectile continues this rotation as it rises. To eliminate this rotation they will need to counter-rotate the projectile on the centrifuge and somehow coordinate the launch with both position and orientation.

The in depth discussion about vacuum pumps was fantastic!

Has anyone ever thought about that such a system wouldn't need to launch complex systems (satellites etc) to be viable, but just mere materials? Ideally homogenous blocks of it. Like building materials for space stations. Or supplies. 200 kg of aluminium plates or such. 200 kg of food. 200 kg of plain water. 200 kg of fuel. Trivial things that are INCREDIBLY expensive to bring into space via rocket but are perfectly suited for a spin launch system. Perfectly located center of mass. No vibrations.

I think that the real problem, which I'm a bit dissapointed you couldn't get into in the video, is the release mechanism. At those speeds, even getting it slightly wrong can send the rocket tumbling around out of control. There are many parts where going wrong for the tiniest fraction of a second can have very bad results: at what point in the rotation you release, releasing both the weight and counterweight at the same time, releasing all of the parts attaching the rocket to the rotating arm at the same time (or releasing the very big one cleanly)... It all needs to be timed to perfection, and robust enough to work many times without maintenance (unless they plan on doing maintenance under vacuum). It doesn't mean it's impossible, but I'll believe they have managed to do all of it perfectly and consistently when I see it.

This is so Cool! I would love to see it work in person. When its tested and ready of course.

@18:54 When the secondary door closes, it appears to be a pressurized fabric, very much like a car airbag, which are also super fast in deployment. They would also release minimal air into the system. I guess once sealed, then the regular door can be more slowly slid into place. Interesting workaround for this problem.

18:53 - I don't know why more people aren't asking about this. The quote is that the door closes in the "blink of an eye," and is "95% closed in 30ms." Let's check this with the video. This video runs at 30FPS (as of making this comment; RU-vid could still be processing a 60FPS format), which means a single frame is 33ms. So then, you'd expect that door to be fully closed in *maybe* 2 frames (66.7ms), double the 30ms promise, if you wanted to be generous. From the moment we can see the door (it's at an angle, so we *could* add another frame before we see it), it takes three entire frames to just *reach* the wall. That is 100ms MINIMUM to be "95% closed." This is already 3x longer than what the engineer here said. Being off by a factor of three when this is supposed to be highly precise and timed to perfection, does not look good.

According to this year old video “Spinlaunch have only just begun with the 1/3rd scale tests”. Why then, did these tests stop abruptly a year ago? It is safe to assume the project hit the rocks big style.

Great video. Incredible research, analysis and presentation. both the real engineering and spinlaunch.

There should be "This is an 3D render" when animations are used and not tests.

One of my favorite videos thus far from this channel. Neither dumbed-down nor overly-challenging - I think you found the Goldilocks "Just right" level.

Climbing a ladder while drinking coffee "Safety third!". Haha, I like these guys. Also, 13:57, both mechanical air pump styles he sited would be superchargers, not turbochargers. The latter being an impeller wheel turned by the flow of exhaust gasses, the former being a screw type mechanically turned kind of thingy.

It took an embarrassing amount of time for the concept of relativity in a supersonic object to click in, but once that happened this became one of the most exciting projects I've heard of in many years. Best of luck and we'll all benefit from your success. Thanks for making this video and forcing me to confront my sea-level atmosphere engineering biases.

I love how you describe every single problem the engineers faced when designing this contraption. From basic vacuum concepts to intricate equations that describe every step of the way. In particular, I love the part where you said it would have to spin at Mach 6 which simply baffled me. Thank you for your great work in researching and describing these marvels of engineering.

This was an impeccable documentary. No fat on it at all and explained exceptionally well.

Super intresting, can't stop thinking of the consequences of a missifre/doors not opening quickly enough/malfunction.

23:34 Drinking game: take a shot every time this guy says “you know”

an orbital YEET launch system is probably the coolest thing i've heard yet. hopefully they're able to overcome the many barriers to space flight and become a viable solution.

Hope they manage to overcome all the obstacles for this to become economical. Being able to send fuel up cheaply to an orbital refueling station would open up so many options for manned missions.

I would have liked to see and hear about their solution to the problems with the lateral g's on the two rocket engines during spin as those may not be able to assemble themselves into their final configuration in flight the way they plan to do with the reaction wheel. The rocket engines will have way more massive parts than a capacitor. And the engines will get other stresses when firing different than those of spin, and must not fail while firing after the great stress during spin.

this is my second watch since you uploaded and i can easily say this is the format you need to focus on. forget timeframes. just make it high quality like this one.

I will admit, this video answered my questions about the door mechanism (which was only a membrane before). Many other aspects of the system are clearly feasible, such as the low atmosphere vessel, and energy requirements. However, I do not feel like the enough information was given on how the vehicle/payload would deal with high shock events, and they are clearly hiding their release mechanism design. And yes, that release mechanism will be proprietary, but it should be the biggest concern for potential investors, as the loads it must endure are very high and it must release the vehicle in nearly an instant without imparting any significant torque. I still don't believe the project can scale up, but I will be happy to be proven wrong, if they can pull it off.

I absolutely love that the heart of this concept is “let’s just throw it.”

The engineering marvels that are created to reduce waste, increase efficiency, and improve technique are amazing. Between launching rockets on minimal fuel, reusing rockets or casings, and creating inflatable habitats in space is beyond words. I’m so thankful to every group and person that funds these innovators!

Amazing documentary. Thank you

I think where this system will work best is in low gravity environments like on the moon. 1) Instead of having to remove the gasses in the spin-launcher, they aren't an issue. 2) No atmosphere in the way, means much higher exit speeds with lower RPM & power requirements. 3) A lot less gravity will mean a lot less loss of momentum. 4) With less severe construction & power constraints you could scale it up even more to send out even larger payloads. I'm not sure how a spin-launch system would fair against something like a railgun approach, but it would be interesting to see how it would compare. Then again, all I've seen about the railgun approach to getting payloads off the moon or Mercury (for a Dyson Swarm) is Kurzgesagt's animations.

I myself am a Computational Science major but i am already surrounded by engineering students and this video and especially the reaction to the airlock door speed perfectly summed up why i love engineers. There is no other group of people who can be so happy about a fast closing door because engineering in itself is nothing but a bunch of children not caring if something is possible but with the needed stubbornness to just make it work somehow damn it and in the end it's either amazing or it leads to something new to be curious about

This project is really cool. I wish it all success!

Thank you for the amazing work on this one. WE WANT MORE !

I'm rooting for them just for the "fun" engineering aspect alone!

For anyone who has heard of the Sprint anti-ICBM missile from the 1970's, this is completely feasible to make function as intended, albeit quite difficult. For anyone who doesn't know, the Sprint was a high velocity direct interception missile that would reach Mach 10 within 5 seconds of launch from the ground, going through a similar flight regime in many aspects to what spin-launch's vehicle would have to endure. On top of that, the acceleration of the vehicle during the initial phase of a sprint launch is significantly higher than what the spin-launch would impart on a launch vehicle. Once again with that being said, what they are trying to do is incredibly difficult (some might even say a bit crazy), but the system truly does seem to be possible and I hope to see them achieve a successful orbital launch in the near future.

I love this. Utterly delightful concept and all these people look so ready to make it happen. Not sure whether it's a problem or a blessing that humans can't be hardened for 10,000 Gs...

For the launcher, don't use iron to rotate, but use iron fiber which can be stable when widened, calculated to withstand a pull of 12 tons or more so that you can increase the pulling load to launch the rocket. and don't forget oil to reduce friction at hype speed when launching the rocket

Looking forward ro see Thunderfoot's or the Common Sense Sceptic's answer to this video.

The low level of English that I manage has been enough to learn tons of new things thanks to you and this new type of format. I have no words to thank you for the time spent to create this amazing work. I send you greetings from a small town in the mountains of Colombia. !!

Best video for this system❤

I can't wait to see its first orbital launch! Great video!

Here are my calculations, matching the video's inputs where possible, and guesses elsewhere. SI units used throughout. INPUTS: tether radius = 45 m projectile velocity = 2058 m/s projectile mass = 9072 kg allowable angular error of release = 1.0 deg frangible link tensile strength = 3.5 GPa (high-strength unidirectional carbon fiber) structural safety factor = 1.5 air density = 1.225 kg/m^3 projectile radius = 0.5 m drag coefficient = 0.1 OUTPUTS: spin frequency = 7.279 Hz allowable timing error of release = 382 us = 0.382 ms = 0.000382 s centripetal acceleration = 94120 m/s^2 = 9594 g dynamic pressure = 2.594 MPa drag force = 203.7 kN drag deceleration = 22.46 m/s^2 = 2.29 g tether tension = 853.8 MN tether section area = 0.366 m^2 tether section equivalent diameter = 68.2 cm (diameter of the severed link) From a physics perspective, everything checks out. From an engineering perspective, there are major challenges. The device must sever two very large and strong connections with a timing accuracy of less than half a millisecond. I would like to believe that a traditional hinged mechanism could accomplish this, but I don't think it's possible. I know of only one way to do it reliably - a sharp blade driven by explosives. But if one explosive fails to activate, the device rips itself apart due to the large mass eccentricity. If the timing is off, the projectile and/or counterweight collide with the pressure vessel. Furthermore, the frangible links must be distinct from the tether arm, or the entire arm would need to be replaced after each firing. This necessitates a removable joint capable of carrying the same 853 MN load. Unidirectional carbon fiber does not like joints. I expect the cross-sectional area at the joint would need to be at least doubled to maintain the same strength. The severed links must also be replaced in-between firings.

As an engineer myself, This idea was something I used to joke about with my friends back in my college days. Seemed too cartoonsih and the rough calculations we made suggested an idea too impractical to consider seriously. To see such ideas being persued is refreshing.... More power to them 🖖🔥

Great video! Well explained theory and good animations! You've earned a sub. I am keen to watch more videos after this one

Location at 5-6km over sea level would lower the initial force needed to overcome air resistance to some extent. Even to be just in The Aquarius Plateau would give about 3.5km height over sea level. Also making it easier to do vacuum in the chamber. atm at 3500m is just 0.65

I wonder how they calculate so precisely when exactly to release the payload. In such high RPMs, even a millisecond later can mean it will totally miss the exit chamber.

Makes one appreciate writers like Jules Verne who were ahead of their time.

Your visual effect's are awesome

If you would max this out it probably work, like putting it on a mountain or something, putting helium in it etc.

Amazing work Brian & team. This was a really fun and inspiring watch. I have no idea whether or not this project will work. But I'm glad that we have people who are willing to take risks and try anyway (especially given the number of armchair engineers in the comments who are not simply skeptical, but convinced that it can't work).

Oh my god my mind was blown at 38:55. It makes so much sense but it was also the largest hurdle I personally thought. Of course the components are low mass, so their momentum is negligible, so they're unlikely to change their physical shape during gradual increases in g-load, because their internal weight is so much lower than their tensile strength, even under high g load

You would expect them to make the distance between the two airlocks as long as possible,to make things easier. But that is probably just something that i dont really understand here. Am very glad to see this kind of projects develop..Go team.🤸🥳

This is really interesting technology, I love it when people think of new ways to do things.

I remember that cannon at the end of the video, he managed to get the projectiles about 100km? into the atmosphere and all he had was two welded together second hand naval guns which were clearly not designed for the task at hand. In the age of optimism there was a saying if you can imagine it you can build it, so let them have at it, we shall see if it works. All the effects and forces at work are known and can be calculated in advance so it should work.. and even if it doesn't work for orbital launch, maybe its the next big thing in intercontinental express deliveries.

If this works, it could be a good cost-saving measure for moving small amounts of cargo. If it doesn't, the technology and lessons learned could be used for other things in the future. Things don't always translate from paper to the real world so easily. So if the stuff fail (not saying it will) the data provided from the practical application could inform other engineers of potential issues with their designs so they can work on how solve them. Either way, it's nothing but a good thing someone is even trying this whether it works or not.

This is soooo much more interesting than lighting tons of what is essentially kerosene and hoping it doesn't blow up in your face. Cool thing about the double doors is if they are evacuating the tube, the first set are able to start swinging in near vacuum with little resistance and using the incoming rush of atmosphere to help slam them shut. Nothing an appropriate amount of steel can't overcome.

when pumping a vacuum. Would it be any help if you were to spin the chamber? Start spinning at the very beginning of the pumping process. This might fling the air molecules against the walls of the chamber so instead of trying to collect the molecules throughout the void of the chamber the molecules would be against the walls or the chamber. Maybe allowing a scoop to direct the molecules collected on the walls of the chamber out via the pump.

Im an aerospace engineering student and pass by their factory every day on my way to campus! Watching your video just gave me even more of an appreciation for how close I live to this place

I hope they will succeed, but I am highly skeptical. Two things really stand out: A) Opening a 2x2 m (?) vacuum launch door for just a fraction of a second (10 ms?) to let the rocket out. I doubt anything like that can be constructed. B) Payload is seriously limited to only stuff that can withstand 10,000 G of force.

Pretty interesting contraption just the way they achieve a near perfect vacuum is amazing. The next one would have to be absolutely massive to sling a large satellite into space. It amazes me that with all the launch companies in existence they keep coming up with new idea's. Definitely a totally new concept though. 😎

Great video; answered most of my questions. How does the vehicle's innards withstand the G-forces of the spin? Is the entire interior of the vehicle potted SOLID with epoxy or something? Not every component (like turbopumps for propellants) CAN be potted...

"Their only clue was scrawled at the top of their plans: Spinlaunch, a space catapult." So, a name, and a functional description, and detailed plans. Truly mysterious.

Amazing explanation of SpinLaunch, their challenges and their feats thus far!

Love it! Have you considered the gains, of final launch design being in the high Arizona Mesa? Or high Mountain region of Utah and Idaho for final scale models launch Base? Among other world locations on the globe...! Love it Keep up with the math, Achieve Great things!

THIS is about as EXCITING a development as any I've seen , on climbing out of our gravity well so we can head on out , from there . I _HOPE_ I live long enough to see their first COMMERCIAL Launch . THAT will be an incredible experience ! Something I find equally exciting is the natural niche that something like this creates for itself , _and_ if we can SEE this fill that niche , we'll be seeing it accomplish its OWN viability !! How COOL would THAT BE !!

How can the centrifuge release the payload in 1/3,600 of a second figuring 10 rotations per second and and a window of 1 degree angle at best ? It will be interesting to see how the release mechanism works.

5:37 - "SpinLaunch aims to yeet its aeroshell." I love how "yeet" is used as a technical term here, and I love the _whoosh_ sound as he says it. It's great that they're able to achieve a suborbital yeet, but I wonder if they could do a straight yeet to ballistic capture into lunar orbit from Earth. Makes me wonder if a trans-lunar yeeting is possible.

Awesome to see SpinLauch working with Kron Technologies Chronos camera systems 17:55

Something I'm curious about is could can we actually take advantage of the difference in temperature far below ground to use as energy as was claimed in the science fiction novel Foundation. Could we perhaps use that to than build rocket ships near the tops of mountains, than when launching them, roll them down o rails with a jump at the end to give them momentum and overcome a lot of the initial Inertia resistance?

This concept is by design only able to carry very limited payloads, and puts extreme forces on the rocket components that are launched. The numbers they give are also entirely speculative, as they have only had one actual flight test at a relatively low altitude. Yes, I have watched the video, and it was well produced, but there was very little skepticism presented towards the claims they made.

When I first heard of SpinLaunch's idea, I though "moving the rocket-fuel away from the launch-vehicle? That makes a lot of sense", from there it just becomes an engineering problem. After the engineering problem it becomes a mere scaling-of-economics problem. Sure, several hurdles to overcome - but I never agreed with the kneejerk "impossible!" reactions, and I for one will keep watching their efforts and hope it they're successful. Their energy-demands also sound like they can be a MUCH greener launch system than any "pure rocket" solution.

I vaguely remember reading about this a few years ago... so flicking cool

Excellent work I use this video with students in Middle School to open discussions about engineering

NASA contractor here. I work very closely with the Spaceport America partners (Virgin, Spinlaunch, Fiore) I can tell you it's AMAZING work the guys and gals are doing here. I've been to several launches for these companies. If you find yourself here in West Tx, Southern NM, please don't hesitate to comment. We would love to have you take a public tour

I'd like to hear the sonic boom from the launch vehicle first hitting atmosphere after leaving the final door. Would this system not be more efficient launching from a higher altitude, and also warm and arid air?

I was kind of surprised. Regarding the counterweight. I figured they would utilize magnetic technology... Or maybe fluid dynamics or something like. used as a counterweight. I'm an idiot so I don't know how that would work ... but with electromagnets similar to those used in plasma confinement... I just figured they could get the magnetic field oriented when and where they need it more reliably then dropping a huge counterweight. Considering the composites.... I didn't think it would be much of a problem but obviously I don't know what I'm talking about ....its just I was thinking the first few times I watched it

Absolute genius!!! Thinking outside the box! We need more of this type of thinking!

I'm really curious about the release mechanism, because it seems there is some residual angular momentum of the vehicle as it exits the tube, making it come out just a little bit sideways. Do they release the front, then the back, at the same point in the arc, or is it all one mechanism? I think releasing the front and back a millisecond or two apart would allow the back to be torqued around and stop that rotation. That would reduce drag and oscillations in the first moments of flight.

I was having trouble finding videos of this machine on RU-vid and after trying a few generic names I searched "NASA yeet machine" and found all kinds of videos of the spin launch immediately

Awsome video! Thank you

I haven't even been alive that long it's amazing how many new materials I have witnessed changing the world.

It'll be crazy to seem them pull this one off, hope they can do it cause it would have massive implications for small sats without the need for massive quantities of propellant. Of Course who knows if it would work, there are tons of challenges to overcome, not to mention earth's gravity and the atmosphere

I’m surprised that they didn’t just call a shipyard for the vacuum chamber. The double bottom tanks on ships are built to withstand more than 1 atm of pressure because of hydrostatic loads, and shipyards will have the experience, equipment, and workforce to easily and cheaply produce something like that.

Just the reduced energy required to overcome air resistance would make a vacuum chamber desirable. Having the carbon fiber resin melt from air friction is just a secondary concern. The vacuum also eliminates any turbulence in the chamber at full speed.

They won't show the release system because it's actually just an intern strapped to the end of the tether.