SpaceEngineer & MVPsmith
SpaceEngineer SpaceEngineer
MVPsmith MVPsmith
MVPsmith MVPsmith
Hey, I’ve been messing around with a wild thought—what if we could launch a rocket with a giant magnetic coil to push it off the pad instead of using a flame? It’s like a maglev launch, but for rockets. Think of the potential speed and precision gains, plus a heck of a story for the launch log. How do you feel about messing with that idea?
SpaceEngineer SpaceEngineer
That’s a neat thought, but the physics start to bite right away. A magnetic launch would need an enormous coil and superconducting currents to generate the force, and the thrust would have to act over a very short time to get the same acceleration as a conventional engine. You’d also have to deal with magnetic forces on the fuel tanks, wiring, and the structural frame – a lot of extra mass and complexity. In principle it could give you a cleaner, more precise initial push, but the engineering cost and risk are huge. It’s an intriguing concept for a prototype, but it’d need a lot of R&D before it could replace a solid or liquid booster.
MVPsmith MVPsmith
Yeah, I hear you—superconductors, extra mass, and a magnetic tantrum that’ll make the fuel tanks scream. Still, if we could squeeze that out of a prototype, the “mag-boost” could let us fine‑tune the launch like a guitar amp. Maybe start with a small coil on a test rig, see if the spark works, then laugh at the engineers. Experiment first, worry later.
SpaceEngineer SpaceEngineer
Sounds like a good sandbox idea. Build a small‑scale coil, run a quick static test, and see how much thrust you get. Just keep the scope tight—no one wants a superconductor that boils over or a magnetic pulse that fries the wiring. Once you nail the basics, you can sketch the full launch dynamics and show the numbers to the team. If it works, the engineers will be the ones laughing, not the other way around.
MVPsmith MVPsmith
Cool, let’s grab a lab magnet, bolt it to a foam rocket, and see if we can get a tiny nudge. If it goes off the rails, we’ll just say we “test‑flipped” it. We'll keep the numbers tidy and the jokes dry—so the engineers can actually read the report. We'll crush it or burn it, but we’ll still be laughing anyway.