A new way to go fast
Accelerating objects using ground-based solid jets
Payload
Whether the customer is military or civilian, this is the part that goes fast.
Changing the Fundamentals of Launch
Different from Other Launchers
Launcher
Accelerates and focuses particles with a specialized rocket nozzle. Yes, it stays on the ground.
Solid Jet
A focused jet of solid particles that punches through the atmosphere and delivers thrust to the payload.
A rocket can accelerate a payload to high velocity-but it must carry propellant onboard. A gun can accelerate a payload without onboard propellant-but only while the payload is inside the barrel. The solid jet launcher can accelerate a payload without a barrel or onboard propellant, combining the strengths of gun-based and rocket-based launch.
Technical FAQs:
How does the Jet-Gun projectile remain stable during launch without a barrel to guide it?
Short answer: Just like a rocket.
Long answer: As the projectile tilts to one side, it rotates about its center of mass. Thrust from the jet, acting through the center of thrust, attempts to reinforce this motion, and would succeed in the absence of aerodynamic drag. Thrust is destabilizing because its direction follows the direction of the projectile. As the projectile tilts to one side, thrust tilts in the same direction. Drag is a stabilizing force because it acts opposite to the direction that the projectile was traveling before it started to tilt. Naturally, the magnitude of the drag force must be less than the thrust force or the projectile wouldn’t go anywhere. Drag is still able to compensate for a destabilizing thrust force because the center of drag is behind the center of thrust, so it has a longer lever with which to stabilize the projectile.
How do jets of solid particles self-focus?
When a hypersonic particle travels through the atmosphere, it carves out a low-density path of gas. Trailing particles experience lower drag forces in the vicinity of this path and are drawn into it while carving their own paths and attracting their own trailing particles. This behavior is seen in cases where an explosive is surrounded by a layer of dust-even when the dust layer is initially uniform, it organizes itself into many jets.
What’s the fastest speed that Wave Motion has launched to?
700 m/s at a jet velocity of 2400 m/s.
What’s the heaviest projectile that Wave Motion has launched?
90 kg