Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur cover image

Tethered Ring Space Launchers

Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur

00:00

Active Sport - A Space Launch Mechanism

US military has funded studies on the feasibility of launching payloads to space from high altitude planes. The topic today will essentially replace that circling plane with a much better static ring, which spacecraft can race along at accelerations that humans would find comfortable. Think of it as a planetary slingshot. With very good superconductors and magnetic shielding, this can be very low power.

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