Microsatellites That Look Like Pancakes Are Going To Be Sent Into Space With A Spinning Cannon
A startup based in California plans to launch a new broadband satellite constellation called Meridian Space. It will consist of hundreds of small “microsatellites” sent into low-Earth orbit by firing rockets out of a giant spinning cannon. The satellites are flattened and resemble pancakes.
The first batch of spacecraft could be blasted into space as soon as next year. SpinLaunch, the private company behind the project, received $12 million in funding from Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace (KDA) to develop its own satellite constellation with a projected launch date of 2026.
KDA’s NanoAvionics can help them build the constellation quickly and carefully. They claim that Meridian Space could be more cost-effective than SpaceX’s Starlink network.
Each satellite will be 7.5 feet wide and weigh around 154 pounds, making them a lot lighter than most other communications satellites.
They will be shaped like a flat disk and placed on top of each other like a stack of pancakes. Currently, Starlink’s V2 satellites weigh approximately 1,760 pounds each.
If the Meridian Space satellites are successfully delivered into low-Earth orbit next year, it would set a new record for the most spacecraft launched at once. Right now, the record is held by SpaceX’s Transporter-1 mission, which launched 143 satellites in 2021.
Previously, SpinLaunch has launched 10 rockets using its Suborbital Accelerator in New Mexico. It has a vacuum chamber about 108 feet wide and spins objects to speeds of up to 5,000 miles per hour.
Their most recent launch was in September 2022, when multiple payloads were delivered into suborbit for the first time.
The acceleration process took up to 30 minutes during these test launches. The rockets experienced up to 10,000 Gs of force before they were fired into the upper atmosphere.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
Next year’s mission will likely be carried out in the same way. This kind of launch system is significantly cheaper than firing chemical rockets.
According to SpinLaunch, their future commercial launches are predicted to cost between $1,250 and $2,500 per kilogram launched into space. The price range is less than half the cost of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets, which cost roughly $6,000 per kilogram.
The rockets also don’t release any greenhouse gases during launch, so they are better for the environment than chemical rockets.
In addition, they do not require boosters that will have to be left behind in space, resulting in less space junk floating around in low-Earth orbit and lower chances of debris falling back to Earth’s surface.
Once the launch of the Meridian Space constellation is complete, SpinLaunch plans to build a larger Orbital Accelerator machine that can fire payloads directly into low-Earth orbit without the need to fire rockets.
If this happens, up to five commercial payloads could eventually be launched into space every day.
More About:News