THERE’S a new way to fire spacecraft into orbit—a giant spurt of air
and water.
Amateur rocketeer Scott Taylor’s Hydro Pneumatic Accelerator (Hypacc) should
be capable of launching objects as big as the space shuttle into orbit without
using huge amounts of rocket fuel. Hypacc will instead use the immense pressure
of water at depth to provide the necessary initial lift, says Taylor.
“I’m not a rocket scientist and I know there must be thousands of wackos out
there all pushing their ideas,” Taylor told New Scientist. “But I’m just trying
to establish if there’s anything to this idea.”…
