my favorite variant of this is basically a giant sling
just lob that rock right into space.
i found my own citation, thanks.lolinteresting engineering
shit. they've been doing this since the 60s. wtf? how did i not know about this?
it's probably because all of my crazy launch ideas are focused on launching people into space and these things would basically just make your brain explode.
Your footnote there is exactly why.
Doing this to a person is a good way to send one to two hundred pounds of red paste into space.
Electronics can handle more - but even since the 60's it was hard. Solid state components are better - much better - at handling high G forces so it's finally becoming more viable and also things like the sling let you accelerate more slowly to minimize that risk some. (Still would never put a human in one of those but at least you're not going to launch a bunch of fragmented plastic and steel into space this way.)
