Skyhook, The Technology That Could Challenge SpaceX
SpaceX is currently taking the first steps into making us an interplanetary species, but are they ignoring a revolutionary technology that already exists?
SpaceX and other private space companies are on a mission to develop rockets that could take humans to Mars and beyond. But whilst these rockets get bigger and more complex, there is an already proven technology than can take us just as far with smaller crafts and larger payloads. Welcome to the world of Skyhook! where rotating satellites fling ships out of Earths atmosphere and into the cosmos.
The Problem With Rockets
Rockets seem pretty amazing, particularly the upcoming generation of behemoths! It seems feasible that these mega rockets could take us to Mars (see my article ‘Can SpaceX’s Starship Really Take Us To Mars?’). But they have some staggering problems, particularly if we want to travel to other planets regularly.
Rockets have small payloads, they use enormous amounts of fuel and the cost of launching one is staggering (even if you can reuse them like in SpaceX’s case).
