Comment on If you had a huge slingshot, how much rubber band would you need to send a spaceship into space?

Toes@ani.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

This feels like one of those xkcd questions.

Without involving maths, its fair to say it wouldn’t be unlike having it launched by an explosion.

The closest thing I can recall related to this concept would be Project HARP.

Whatever you’re launching would need to be capable of absorbing the unreal amount of G force and survive the resistance of the atmosphere. As you’ll be required to launch the spaceship at escape velocity with a delta of near 0.

I don’t believe rubber has the material strengths necessary to achieve that launch while still being able to store it on the face of the planet. So, imagine a ball of elastics the size of the sun and maybe there’s a chance because of the slow rate of acceleration achievable by not being on the earth any more.

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