Recent 20 years have seen an explosion in computational capabilities and reusable space vehicles. It baffles me why do all rockets still burn from zero velocity instead of:
- dropped from an airplane
- thrown via electric motor
- Gauss gun?
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2This is a FAQ on this site. Does this answer your question? Why aren't rockets launched in movement? – Russell Borogove Apr 10 '21 at 23:25
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5"Many novel launch schemes need some amount of help from rockets. What kills a lot of them is doing a tradeoff study of just enlarging the rocket part and getting rid of the non-rocket part. Surprisingly often, that works out to be better and cheaper." -- Henry Spencer – Russell Borogove Apr 10 '21 at 23:26
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1Alternative launching schemes are extremely effective in removing money from venture capitalists. How might SpinLaunch actually spin something fast enough to launch it into orbit? On earth we've been using a metal box with four rubber wheels on a flat asphalt surface, with the front two used for turning and friction for stopping. There are plenty of other schemes that sound great, but the whole thing solve so many problems in a predictable and reliable way. I think that rockets that burn from zero is analogous in that sense. – uhoh Apr 10 '21 at 23:41
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@RussellBorogove speaking of FAQs, I just wrote this – uhoh Apr 10 '21 at 23:50
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1Also related https://space.stackexchange.com/q/31942/26356 and https://space.stackexchange.com/q/41135/26356 – GremlinWranger Apr 10 '21 at 23:55
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1What makes you think rockets aren't dropped from airplanes? – Jörg W Mittag Apr 11 '21 at 21:37