Space Cannon Blasts Satellite Into Orbit
And Into History
ADAK ISLAND, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA. - For the first time ever, a space cannon launched a one stage rocket, which carried a 2 pound cubesat into orbit. It fulfilled a vision penned by Jules Verne in the story, "From The Earth To The Moon," (1865.) In it a very large cannon fires astronauts into space; an impossible dream because the required G-forces are lethal to humans. Modern rocket science had eclipsed that vision of space flight, until now.
BoomOrbit Inc. built the largest Hydrogen Gas Gun in the world and developed a rocket motor to withstand its launch forces. Last night they placed Tidewater County Community College's cubesat into a circular 450 km low earth orbit. The simple Amateur Radio Band satellite is functioning properly.
Professor Joseph Soto, supervisor of the Advanced Projects Class at TCC said, "It's broadcasting like a champ. A success like this vindicates our fight for the curriculum last year." His program, unlike many others at Tidewater County Community, narrowly escaped the budget axe.
BoomOrbit had to overcome
prejudice that G-hardening rockets and satellites would be
prohibitively expensive, and that the very high speeds in the lower
atmosphere would burn up the craft.
"People don't stop to think. Gut level they
know that meteorites burn up in the atmosphere," said Dr. Kenneth
Skinner, founder of BoomOrbit, "but we don't launch meteorites, we
launch aerodynamically shaped rockets with ablative nose cones. We burn
six inches off the nose on the climb out, that's it. All we had to do
was to get the nose cone to wear evenly so it wouldn't steer the rocket.
We did that on the suborbital shots."
"BoomOrbit sent us instructions on how to G-harden our cubesat," said Soto, "It was very straightforward, we even built a rig to shock test the satellite. By launch time we knew that it would survive."
The stack was the size of
an overlong battleship shell, and didn't take long to load into the
launcher. The "Gun," or, "Launcher," looks for the most part like
an ordinary pipeline running up the west face of Mt. Adagdak. The
large hydrogen pressure vessel and massive reaction weights, springs,
and shocks, are reminders that it is not.
There was an ordinary countdown, but the
launch was over very quickly compared to conventional rocket
launches. At the top of the mountain a bright plume erupted from
the end of the gun and there was a brief and very loud roar, but it
wasn't the spectacular blast one would expect for a launch into
orbit. Their launcher captures the hydrogen to conserve it, which
reduces the plume and the noise. Its was very similar to
an old battleship gun.
The rocket leaves the tube at better than 6km/s (Mach 17 or 13,000 mph) and transits the atmosphere in only a bit over a minute and a half. While in the atmosphere it produces a hypersonic shockwave, but because of the 25 degree launch angle the rocket is in space before it crosses the mainland.
Experts disagree on
how this development will impact the industry. William Pine,
a Financial Analyst of the Aerospace Industry said, "It's a great
accomplishment, but will only have a limited impact on the
industry. Their launcher is constrained to only extremely small
G-hardened payloads."
Martin Owen, Aerospace Industry Consultant said,
"BoomOrbit has proven its technology, and it's going to be a game
changer. Their current launcher is only good for G-Hardened
cubesats, but if they keep to their schedule, they will launch
more cubsats than the rest of the industry combined. And the
cubesat market is exploding. When they finish their
hundred kilo launcher, the launch cost for small G-hardened satellites,
materials, and fuel will drop through the floor."
Mr. Owen does not think that the rest of the industry will feel threatened, "No. Well some more shortsighted players might," he said, "But humans and sophisticated satellites can't be launched this way. The radically lower costs for fuel and materials will enable space activities that, until now, were prohibitively expensive. Overnight the space industry has expanded tremendously. The demand for conventional and even human rated launchers will go through the roof. Very soon the whole industry will realize that demand will outstrip all spare capacity.
The Russians have already announced a crash program for a Hydrogen Gas launch system. Dr. Nikolai Glinka said in a conversation from Baikonur Cosmodrome, "This is not a, 'crash,' program. Our light gas gun has fired projectiles at large fractions of escape velocity many many times. There are hydrogen gas guns all over the world that have done the same. All we have to do is scale one up and point it. It's a wonder no one has done it before, and for that the whole industry owes BoomOrbit a debt of gratitude."