Nasa slingshot will be out of this world
Revolutionary eco-friendly device will propel satellites into orbit at a fraction of the cost of using rockets
NASA is to test a giant hypersonic slingshot as a potentially revolutionary new way to hurl satellites into space.
Taller than the Statue of Liberty, it is in the New Mexico desert and will be tried out later this year.
It consists of a 300ft wide steel vacuum chamber, turned on its side, with an exit pipe pointed at the sky.
Inside, an object is attached to a carbon-fibre tether and flung around in circles. Because it is being spun in a vacuum the object on the end of the tether can be accelerated to thousands of miles per hour, before being released through the pipe.
The 1,000-ton steel, electric-powered centrifuge was built and is operated by a private company, SpinLaunch, which has signed a test deal with Nasa.
A 10ft-long Nasa test vehicle, shaped like a torpedo, will be catapulted skyward before deploying a parachute, landing, and then being recovered and analysed.
Jonathan Yaney, founder of SpinLaunch, said it was a “fundamentally new way to access space” and “we greatly appreciate Nasa’s continued interest and support”.
He has been working on it since 2014 and said it was the space industry’s “best- kept secret”, adding: “We asked the question, ‘Is there a way to get to space without a rocket?’ It’s a radically different way to accelerate projectiles to hypersonic speeds.”
The project represents the first serious alternative to rockets since the dawn of the space age. The aim is to dramatically cut the cost of launching satellites, while also helping the environment by avoiding using vast amounts of rocket fuel.
The first test in October successfully propelled SpinLaunch’s own 10ft-long test vehicle to an altitude of about
‘It represents an absolutely awesome opportunity for expansion into the last surveyable frontier’
33,000ft, higher than Mount Everest. Dozens more tests are planned and then a bigger version of the machine, about the size of the Eiffel Tower, will be used to send satellites into orbit by 2025.
Payloads will be fitted with a small rocket engine, which will ignite at high altitude to power the last bit of the journey to orbit. The system means over 70 per cent of the fuel and structures that make up a current rocket launch would be eliminated, with huge cost savings.
SpinLaunch already has $100million (£76 million) in funding from companies including Google and Airbus, and more than 200 employees. Pete Worden, former director of Nasa’s Ames research centre in California, said: “It’s essential to find a better way to get to space. If you can find a way of providing that kinetic energy by some other means [than a rocket], that’s a real revolution. The real advantage is that most of the energy needed doesn’t have to be carried with you [as fuel]. It changes the whole paradigm. This revolutionises our ability to wire our planet [with communications satellites] and make life better for everybody.”
Mr Yaney has estimated that the slingshot will ultimately reduce the cost of launching a small satellite into orbit from about $7 million to $500,000. Eventually, it should be able to send payloads of about 440lb into orbit for a fraction of what it costs other pioneers like SpaceX.
“It represents an absolutely awesome opportunity for expansion into the last surveyable frontier,” said Mr Yaney.