mountain launch

ok, lets assume your serious here.

1) the water would never reach supersonic speed. no matter how many
reductions you got in there.

2) if a super sonice wave did hit the shuttle, it would either stop
the water or the ship would accelerate at about 100 g. humans could
only survive that for about 1/100 of a second.

3) assuming that your craft does survive, gravity would slow the
water down as fast as it climbed.

4) assuming that your tube was 14000 feet, the water would run out of
power about 10000 feet, due to friction and gravity (mostly gravity)

if your lucky, your ship will make it to mach one before losing
acceleration from the water.

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, wrote:
>
> several of us looked into all this , using hydraulic water
pressure as launch medium, i.e. drop a significant amount of water
from mountain height down through a strong tube, narrowing the tube
as it goes down to force the falling water to speed up like a mining
system that uses water blasts to strip rock etc.
>
> This water pressure now at super sonic speeds then hits a "u
turn" at the bottom and then forces the space craft up and out. weep
holes along the launch tube allows the pressure to be less at
beginning and build up steadily as less and less holes leak pressure
as it climbs higher and higher up the tube...therefore allowing
gradual build up of "Gs" rather than high impact.
>
> Vacuum tunnel with a cap on the top end with multiple laser
ionizing the air up in front and through the trajectory to "bust it
up" for less "toughness" for aircraft to punch through.,,,even
considering reduced air at 14,000 feet
>
> The mountain we considered was Volcan Baru, about 8 degrees from
the equator, elevation 14,000 feet. rainforest surrounding and
straddling narrow point between Pacific and Caribbean sea for easy
access for cargo delivery, and "crash zone in case of emergency into
either area east or west (yes at this location oceans are east and
west not north and south) ...
>
> with low cost labour, natural gradual slop from extinct volcano
cone, we figure we could do it for the loose change found in sofas in
the lower 48 states plus deposits on forgotten soda bottles from
the '90's .
>
> We could then offer low cost 90 minute delivery to Asia and or
low cost LEO... assist rockets can impulse the vehicle to higher
orbits as needed.
>
> For a vehicle we use standard 40 ft shipping container with a
welded pointy nose and rounded rump for aero dynamics. These can be
cut off in orbit and "spooned together " to drop back to launch point
for sea recovery and recycling. Thousands of these container are
accumulating every year at the nearby free zone at the Panama Canal
from Orient shipping of goods in one sided trade... with nothing to
send back the container just stack up. Launching into LEO helps get
rid of accumulation and also provides building blocks for space
station. This container after being emptied of payload can then be
filled with lunar regolith or crushed passing by asteroids to create
density for space radiation protection.
>
> And there you have it.
>
> start pulling out the lose change from your sofa and turning in
soda bottles,,,and don't buy pizza or beer or other useless
stuff...send it to us. We already have a 501c3 corp set up as ecology
institute of the americas...
>
> whacha waiting for...? ya wanna see pictures??
>
> OK where does the power come for the lasers? you ask...
>
> well, a duplicate set of tubes also dropping water provides
a "head" of several thousand feet to turn tesla turbines that are
connected to generators that in series provide the terawatts for the
ionizing lasers .
>
> how does the water get up to super super sonic speeds with the tube
wall friction? well the wall is permeated with tint capillaries where
air inside the tube (yes even though vacuumed out as best as possible
there still will be some air left) is forced ahead passing through
the capillaries and "bubbling back out along the inside skin of the
tube creating warbler effect that breaks up the surface tension of
the water because of the vortex which allows it to pass on with out
actually touching any surface, thereby creating a frictionless
pathway.
>
> As a side note...the spraying out effect of water along the lower
parts of the tube used to soften the initial impact also has a
decorative aesthetic property for entertaining passing by
cruiseships. of people wanting to see the launches of this new
engineering marvel.
>
> It fitting that historically the area of this mount was the gateway
and first place of the Americas where Columbus landed, and that the
Canal, just a ways down from here was also the argueably greatest
engineering feat for developing new trade route, just as the mass
launcher will be the new gateway to new worlds (or off worlds)