December 18, 2020 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
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Embedded below the fold in two parts.
Please consider donating to Behind the Black, by giving either a one-time contribution or a regular subscription, as outlined in the tip jar below. Your support will allow me to continue covering science and culture as I have for the past twenty years, independent and free from any outside influence.
Your support is even more essential to me because I keep this site free from advertisements and do not participate in corrupt social media companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook. I depend wholly on the direct support of my readers.
You can provide that support to Behind The Black with a contribution via Patreon or PayPal. To use Patreon, go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. For PayPal click one of the following buttons:
If Patreon or Paypal don't work for you, you can support Behind The Black directly by sending your donation by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman, to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
“Spin launch”… How the heck is that supposed to work from Earth? On airless space it might be a great idea. But the payload needs a speed of about 8 km/s as it enters LEO orbit. That’s about Mach 25 at the surface. Plus speed lost to friction in the atmosphere. Military missiles, and the British Skylon spaceplane, have problems with melting from the heat of that friction already at Mach 5 in thinner higher atmosphere. It would be like firing a glowing meteor in the reverse direction. There will be less of it left at 100 km altitude than of a meteorite colliding with Earth, smoking hot fragments of which then rains down on the ground here and there, just like such a “spin launched” payload will. I guess there would be a meteoroid impact like explosion already at the launcher’s muzzle, destroying the thing.
Is it a joke or a fraud? I suppose the difference is whether people are laughing or investing.