rocket sled
the rocket sled interactive simulates the motion of a horizontally - moving rocket sled. learners can modify the propulsion force, the resistance forces (friction and air resistance), and the mass of the rocket sled. the net force and velocity of the sled are displayed .
stapp sustained bruises, blisters and temporary blindness in the epic rocket sled test run .
the main barrier to making a cost effective rocket sled launch is the atmosphere. it' s a huge barrier to making a cost effective rocket sled launch for a few reasons :
stresses of moving a rocket through the atmosphere at higher speeds requires stronger rocket structures that are necessarily heavier .
rocket sled begins as our 100% wheat beer fermented on coolship - caught microbes. the… show more
so in summary, the barriers to economically feasible rocket sleds are problems that have yet to be overcome in the design of rocket sled launches and more promising alternatives .
high - speed photography shows the shock waves produced by the rapid acceleration of the 4 - stage rocket sled .
visitors to the new mexico museum of space history in alamogordo, new mexico can view the sonic wind rocket sled 1 .
from episode 1 of our discovery channel series
rocket science
: dr. john paul stapp' s extraordinary 1954 rocket sled run. (full 13 - part series available at www. foolishearthling. com )
a rocket - propelled sled that travels along rails and is used to study the effects of acceleration and deceleration, and crash survival techniques .
it has been 60 years since col. john p. stapp sailed down a test track, strapped in tight onboard sonic wind rocket sled 1 .
this is the sonic wind 1 rocket sled, which was powered by nine solid fuel rockets with 40, 000 pounds total thrust for five seconds .
3 - d (rocket, each): 49. 9kg (110lb. )
spacex launched the world' s most powerful rocket. so, what' s next ?
the new sled operates much like a rocket launching into orbit. it’s powered by 13 separate motors organized in four stages, each attached to its own part of the sled. as each stage burns out, it detaches, while the next stage ignites and pushes the sled to an even higher speed .
not the answer you' re looking for? browse other questions tagged launch high - altitude - launch rocket - sled launch - assist or ask your own question .
all the above said, since the atmosphere is the main barrier, on bodies like the moon with no atmosphere, a rocket sled is a much more attractive option .
space museum says farewell to famous rocket sled 11, 000 pound sled removed by crane and driven to washington d. c. to be part of smithsonian national air and space museum' s exhibit on speed. check out this story on urltoken urltoken
@ localfluff & erik - you' re both right - i left out part of my question. i never intended to propose a direct sled - to - orbit - just using the sled to get the rocket closer to orbit, instead of from the ground .
the sonic wind 1 rocket sled used by col. john p. stapp to become the
fastest man on earth
is now displayed at the new mexico museum of space history .
the physics classroom would like to thank nerd island studios for generously contributing the rocket sled interactive to our physics interactives collection. more great stuff by nerd island studios can be found at their website :
stapp arrive at holloman in 1953. there he developed, in cooperation with the northrop corporation, a far more powerful rocket sled he called sonic wind no. 1. this sled had a full propulsion section attached behind it and a water brake system at the end of the track; a scoop attached to the underside of the sled would dig into a series of dams placed between between the rails, absorbing the energy of the run and stopping the sled .
stapp' s research with rocket sleds also led to him working with general motors to create seat belts in vehicles .
col. john p. stapp comes to the end of his record - setting rocket sled test at the holloman high speed test track, dec. 10, 1954, as shown in this series of photos .
that pioneering ride on dec. 10, 1954 earned stapp the title ,
the fastest man on earth
– a speedy rocket - powered trip that propelled him to a rate of 632 miles per hour and subjected the test subject to more than 40 gs given the rocket sled' s 1. 4 second stop in motion .
stapp rode the sled during the parade commemorating the opening of the new mexico museum of space history and afterwards the sled became one of the first artifacts on display at the outdoor exhibit named in honor of stapp. stapp rode the sled one last time during another parade in 1998 .
the sled was transferred to the smithsonian in 1966 by the u. s. air force .
project smart
supersonic survival
u. s. air force sled track at hurricane mesa 50794
. john p. stapp hurtled down the holloman high speed test track aboard the sonic wind rocket sled 1 at a rate of 632 miles per hour on dec. 10, 1954, earning the title of
the fastest man on earth .
sending a sled along a rail track at hypersonic speeds–more than five times faster than the speed of sound–isn’t easy. when you’re traveling the equivalent of 31 football fields per second, there’s no room for error. a 1994 run for the record failed when metal “slippers” holding the sled to the track delaminated, requiring the sled to be redesigned .
upon completion of the historical test, the air force gave the sled to stapp as a souvenir. stapp donated the sled to the smithsonian institution, where it became part of their collection. stapp was one of the founders of the space hall of fame and requested the sled' s return when the museum opened in alamogordo in 1976 .
even if a direct launch to orbit from the sled isn' t feasible, i' d think that this would be a efficient way to get a regular rocket into the upper atmosphere at significant velocity, instead of starting from a standing start on the ground. the rocket would then be able to push the payload the rest of the way into orbit with far less fuel than a traditional one would need .
rocket sleds have been used for a variety of research purposes over the years, both manned and unmanned. they helped in the development of aircraft ejection seats, and tested the limits of human endurance during rapid acceleration. holloman has been a center of rocket sled research since 1950, and held the previous land speed record set in october 1982 when it blasted a 25 - pound payload to a speed of 6119 mph .
the sled weights 11, 000 pounds and cost the smithsonian $ 30, 000 to move to washington d. c .
sonic wind no. 1, the famous rocket sled col. john p. stapp rode to become the fastest man alive in 1954, has left the new mexico museum of space history to be apart of the smithsonian national air and space museum in washington, d. c .
and there might be easier avenues at the moment for cost savings. designing fully reusable vehicles might be able to save more money in launches than the minimal fuel and structure reductions a rocket sled launch could make. also, a working scramjet engine would be able to use aircraft to get rockets up beyond the atmosphere and to orbital speed, which would replace almost all the rocket fuel needed to get to leo with much cheaper aircraft fuel .
gradually, more objectives were added to these test runs, including human tolerance to wind blasts. a sled run on august 20, 1954, had the sled’s speed increased to 502 miles per hour with stapp exposed to the elements. he survived .
beefing a rocket up isn' t actually that expensive construction but it' s extra weight - - and the rocket equation is brutal indeed. every extra pound holding your booster together is a pound that comes off your payload. you only want to go to these costs if there is a substantial benefit to be gained .
vibration encountered at high speeds ruled out the use of wheels. the sled travels on a pair of pads called “slippers. ”
alamogordo – sonic wind no. 1, the famous rocket sled col. john p. stapp rode to become the fastest man alive in 1954, has left the new mexico museum of space history to be apart of the smithsonian national air and space museum in washington, d. c .
of course in that case you' d hope from a little slower acceleration because the way this rocket sled hops off the starting line really looks like it would give you whiplash. not to mention the video doesn' t show what happens after it has finished its record - setting sprint .
the april test marked the culmination of a 5 - year, $ 20 million hypersonic upgrade program that resulted in an improved rocket sled, new propulsion systems and precise alignment of the rail system. the result is what the air force calls “the longest, straightest, fastest track in the world. ”
sonic wind no. 1, the famous rocket sled that john p. stapp rode to become the fastest man alive in 1954, was removed from the new mexico museum of space history wednesday morning and is on it' s way to the smithsonian national air and space museum in washington d. c .
this is the sonic wind 1 rocket sled, which was powered by nine solid fuel rockets with 40, 000 pounds total thrust for five seconds. air force lt. col. john stapp first rode the sled on march 19, 1954, at holloman air force base, new mexico, and reached a speed of 613 feet per second. during acceleration, he was subjected to a force of 22 times that of gravity (22 g' s). he made his second run on the sled on august 20, 1954 attaining a speed of 735 feet per second .
as i watched sonic wind no. 1 drive away, there was a big hole in my rocket park and a big hole in my heart ,
orwoll said .
2) you have a big problem with the strength of a rocket. rockets are normally built like eggshells - - strong against the intended load, very weak against forces they aren' t going to encounter. you' ll need to beef your rocket up substantially so it can survive sitting there on the launch cradle before someone pushes the button .
it might make the ultimate amusement park ride, if anyone could survive. hitting hypersonic speeds of mach 8. 5–that’s 6416 mph, in civilian terms–a 4 - stage rocket sled took just 6. 04 seconds to blast the more than 3 - mile length of track at holloman air force base in new mexico .
the rocket sled interactive is shown in the iframe below. there is a small hot spot in the top - left corner. clicking / tapping the hot spot opens the interactive in full - screen mode. use the escape key on a keyboard (or comparable method) to exit from full - screen mode .
images of that experiment were publicized around the world. and for aspiring space cadets it was an early, albeit scary, introduction to rocket travel and g - force face time !
if you thought maglev trains were fast, this rocket sled is here to tech you a thing or two about speed. rigged by air force researchers from the 846th test squadron, the new test at holloman air force base took the world record for the fastest speed ever traveled by a magnetically levitating vehicle: 633 mph .
what made you want to look up sled? please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible) .
the sled is on display within the john p. stapp air & space park, named after international space hall of fame inductee and aeromedical pioneer .
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but lets say you didn' t want a stronger, heavier rocket, and just wanted to get up to the speed the shuttle usually got to at mountain - altitude. i' ve been told the amount of fuel it takes to get up to orbital height is only a small fraction of the amount of fuel it takes to get up to orbital speed (8 km / s), which would mean you can' t save much fuel from a mountain - altitude rocket sled. it would certainly save some, but possibly not much .
a navy jet shot from a carrier by a steam catapult might reach 8 or 9 g’s, about as much force as a human can take before blacking out. the unmanned, bullet - shaped payload on holloman’s rocket sled reached 157 g’s, or 157 times the force of gravity. the air force estimates that when the 192 - pound payload slammed into its target, it carried the energy of a car hitting a brick wall at 2020 mph. the sled itself slides beneath the target, so it can be reused .
the whole purpose of these rocket sled tests was really to see how many g - forces a human body could take ,
said museum curator sue taylor .
the tests originally started in california at edwards air force base when stapp was out there. he always insisted on doing the tests himself because he didn' t want to get anybody injured .
a critical difference between then and now: in 1982, the hhstt was a monorail system. the sled rode on a single slipper–wheels wouldn’t survive such speeds–and created a lot of vibration. the upgraded track is a narrow - gauge track, and the sled rides on a pair of slippers. “that reduced the vibration fourfold, ” explains lt. col. james jolliffe, 846th test squadron commander, “producing a smoother ride, ” and making it less likely the sled would jump its track .
1b) a medium launch velocity, say mach 10. things get even worse - - you need to beef up your rocket to handle this and you' ll still bleed most of the velocity to drag .
11, 000 pound sled removed by crane and driven to washington d. c. to be part of smithsonian national air and space museum' s exhibit on speed .
according to budget documents, plans for 2018 included sled tests of full - scale hammer weapon system, and preparing to transfer the technology to the air force next year .
strapped into an exact replica of a jet pilot’s seat, stapp rode the sonic wind for the first time on march 19, 1954. six rockets produced 27, 000 pounds of thrust to propel the sled to a top speed of 421 miles an hour. it was a land speed record, and when the sled stopped stapp was subjected to 22 gs .
the u. s. air force set a new world speed record for magnetically levitated sled systems (maglev) sending a rocket propelled sled down a 2100 ft track reaching 633 mph (1018. 71 km / h) at holloman afb on march 4, 2016. the current speed record for a maglev train is 366 mph, set by the japanese. the current world land speed record stands at 763. 035 mph, set in october 1997 by british royal air force pilot andy green driving the jet - powered thrust ssc. unit - 846th test squadron film credits: sra breeann sachs
for context, the current fastest maglev train in japan has a top speed of a little more than half that, a respectable 366 mph, and without any rockets to give it a hand. the rocket sled you' ll see snagging the record below, on the other hand, has gotten up to 513 mph before, but its latest record - setting run is a heck of a thing to see .
holloman air force base, n. m. (afpn) - - the 846th test squadron here set the world land speed record for a railed vehicle of 6, 453 mph, or mach 8. 5, april 30. the six - second event created a flash as the rocket - propelled sled traveled 16, 120 feet. (u. s. air force photo by 2nd lt. heather newcomb )
stapp’s rocket sled career might have been cut short but his results went far. he proved, by extrapolation, that a pilot could survive ejecting from an aircraft traveling 1, 800 miles per hour at 35, 000 feet. he also demonstrated that, with the proper restraints, a pilot could withstand up to 45 g’s in a crash. jet pilots' seats were subsequently strengthened to protect men from stronger impacts .
totsuka, the world cup points leader this season, lay on his back at the bottom of the pipe for several minutes while medics skied down and loaded him onto an orange sled .
of the 17, 014 ft. traveled by the sled, 11, 000 ft. was through a 184 - in. - dia. tube filled with lightweight helium gas, simulating flight through the upper atmosphere, where friction is sharply reduced. the sled accelerated “like a jet hitting its afterburners, ” according to capt. steve georgian, 846th ts acquisitions management chief .
on december 10, 1954, he made his last and most notable ride on the sled reaching a speed of 632 miles per hour. stapp underwent a force of 40 g' s, the highest g force any human had endured to that time. the sled rides helped determine the effects of extreme acceleration on the human body, data that was very useful in aerospace medicine .
in the years after the second world war, airplanes were starting to fly higher and faster thanks to new streamlined fuselages and powerful jet and rocket engines. but pilots weren' t getting any more robust; higher flight in faster airplanes meant more dangerous bail out conditions and harder crashes, which meant flying was an increasingly hazardous job. the disparity between powerful aircraft and human frailty presented a unique opportunity to study human tolerances to extreme environments, and that appealed to air force flight surgeon john paul stapp. in the name of pilot safety, stapp strapped himself to a rocket sled and shot across the desert only to stop suddenly at the end of the track pulling upwards of 40 gs .
by june 8, 1951, volunteers had made 74 runs on the sled. stapp himself was one of the most frequent riders, fracturing his wrist twice on more violent runs. but the sled at edwards wasn’t enough. he wanted to try faster speeds and more violent decelerations, an opportunity he got when he was transferred from muroc to the holloman air force base in new mexico .
1a) a fairly low launch velocity, say mach 1. the launch impulse is basically bled away in drag. you gained nothing but lost a lot of energy while your rocket turned from horizontal to vertical. (something that rockets don' t do well. )
a special case of a launch sled would be to incline it up the side of a mountain. at which point, the lower end would be in the atmosphere, the top end thinner due to altitude .
the final two stages each use single super roadrunner, or srr, rocket motors. designed specifically for the hhstt, they weigh in at a mere 1100 pounds apiece. yet, during burns of just 1. 4 seconds, each produces a total of 228, 000 pounds of thrust .
these example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word' sled.' views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of merriam - webster or its editors. send us feedback .
maybe i' m missing something, but i' m still not following you. why would the acceleration need to be significantly more than that in a traditional rocket? simply to make up for the fact that it isn' t entirely vertical? more of it takes place lower in the atmosphere ?
stapp' s first tests took place on a 2, 000 - foot long track at muroc (now edwards) air force base that had originally been built for american scientists to study the v - 1 buzz bomb. by adding rockets to a sled, stapp could accelerate down the length of the track to near crash speeds. a series of 45 clasping pairs of brake surfaces would stop the sled at the end of the track, mimicking what a pilot would experience when crashing at high speeds .
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subscribe: urltoken like: urltoken visit: urltoken follow: urltoken john paul stapp fastest man on earth - rocket sled to test pilot safety equipment 1954 this footage is available for purchase and usage. this is a low - resolution sample. watermark does not appear on master. to order this material as broadcast - quality full screen / full resolution, send a request (with link) to footagerequest @ publicdomainfootage. com. all material public domain and royalty - free saving you hundreds and even thousands. total buyouts. no licensing hassles. lowest rates on newsreels, archival stock footage and contemporary stock footage packages. everything from the historical to the hysterical. if we don' t have it we' ll personally search the national archives for you .
shortly afterwards, the air force doctor (dr. john paul stapp) who rode a sled on the deceleration track to a stop, pulling 40 gs, gave a press conference. he said that their good safety record on the project was due to a firm belief in murphy' s law and in the necessity to try and circumvent it .
the test broke a 20 - year - old standing land speed record. but at a cost of $ 750, 000, the objective of the run was to do a lot more than get into the guinness book of records. ”we’re fighting tomorrow’s wars today, ” says lt. col. russ kurtz, operations director at the 846th test squadron, after the successful test at the upgraded holloman high - speed test track (hhstt). the rocket sled carried a 192 - pound instrument package designed to simulate the warhead of a ballistic missile defense system. the only ground test facility capable of punching payloads up to that speed, the hhstt is a key part of the u. s. air force missile defense warhead test program, and is being used to simulate full - scale intercepts of enemy rockets .
when the cloud broke, the test was on. the nine rockets behind stapp came to life. in five seconds he reached 632 miles per hour, which is about mach 0. 9. kittinger watched at the sled outstripped his t - 33. almost as suddenly as it started, the run ended. from the moment the scoops first dug into the water, it took just 1. 4 seconds for the sled to come to a complete stop. this rapid deceleration translated to more than 40 gs, making stapp momentarily weigh 6, 800 pounds as his body slammed forward. the force of the stop was the same that a driver would feel smashing into a brick wall at 120 miles per hour .
jolliffe calls holloman’s missile defense tests a graduation step between computer models and simulation, and a test flight. it’s certainly a lot cheaper than actually launching a missile defense test. the pentagon expects to spend just over $ 10 million on 16 hypersonic sled tests. the tests supposedly will eliminate the need for four missile launches, which would ring up a $ 300 million bill .
sonic wind no. 1 weighs 11, 000 pounds and was removed from the museum on wednesday morning by crane. the smithsonian institution paid about $ 30, 000 to move it from alamogordo to washington, d. c. once the sled arrives in washington, d. c. , it will be on the national mall as part of a new gallery called speed .
at this speed, the sled could cover the distance from nyc to la in less than four hours, if it took a straight - line path. it is basically a jet but on the ground. it' s just a hair shy of the maximum hyperloop speeds that elon musk is hoping for, which gives you an impression of how fast those capsules will speed through the tubes if they ever reach max speed .
before he had fully recovered from his injuries, stapp was already planning to add more rockets to the sled for the next test. he wanted to get it up to 1, 000 miles per hour to go faster than the speed of sound, but the air force finally intervened. he was “grounded” from doing any more high speed research runs. his life and work were too valuable to risk on another high speed run .
stapp' s record - breaking sled run was the final manned - run in a series of windblast and deceleration tests designed to understand human tolerance to high - speed ejections from aircraft ,
air force research laboratory historian kevin rusnak said in a statement .
aside from the positive publicity the event garnered for the air force, it more importantly brought international recognition to stapp' s mission to improve the safety of airmen and pilots .
stapp’s last sled run on december 10, 1954, was also his more noteworthy. three more rockets had been added to sonic wind’s propulsion system for this run; the full cluster nine of solid fuel rockets could produce 40, 000 pounds of thrust. because there was no windscreen, stapp’s arms and legs were secured to decrease the chances of injury from his limbs flailing in the wind. he wore a helmet and had a bite block in his mouth to protect his teeth .
and then the sled was still. stapp waited for emergency personnel to remove him from the seat and take him to hospital. his body was in shock from the extreme g - forces. all the blood vessels in his eyes had burst, rendering him momentarily blind; for a few nervous minutes didn’t know whether he would ever regain his sight. he had cracked ribs, both his wrists were broken, and the deceleration had taken a toll on his respiratory and circulatory systems. he was banged up, but in good spirits. time magazine subsequently named stapp the “fastest man on earth. ”
atmosphere. just take a breath and you' ll know what the problem is. you have to use muscles to replace only a litre or so of air. orbital velocity is about 8 km / s. how many
mach
is that? 25? how fast do you propose that something would go from zero to 25 mach? you might say
water! everyone needs water, insensitive launch payload
but even water would burn at 25 mach. it' s like firing a gun (or train) into a mountain. conventional rockets graciously avoid that problem by rising slowly through the dense parts of the atmosphere. though the sled might be a great idea on the airless moon !
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test sets world land speed record > u. s. air force > article display
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it took the air force more than two decades to best its old land speed record. but it’s not likely to wait that long to do it again. the track can reach mach 9, and holloman officials acknowledge mach 10 is a possibility though they won’t say when they expect to get there. they’re also planning to upgrade the hhstt to carry even heavier payloads .
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murphy' s law (
if anything can go wrong, it will
) was born at edwards air force base in 1949 at north base .
it was named after capt. edward a. murphy, an engineer working on air force project mx981, (a project) designed to see how much sudden deceleration a person can stand in a crash .
one day, after finding that a transducer was wired wrong, he cursed the technician responsible and said ,
if there is any way to do it wrong, he' ll find it .
the contractor' s project manager kept a list of
laws
and added this one, which he called murphy' s law .
actually, what he did was take an old law that had been around for years in a more basic form and give it a name .
the site of his adventure was the holloman high speed test track in new mexico, an experiment to ascertain the impact on a pilot ejected at 35, 000 feet at twice the speed of sound .
the effects of that run were relatively negligible, but the data obtained was invaluable ,
stapp reportedly once said of the flight, according to the u. s. air force .
stapp retired from the u. s. air force in 1970 as a colonel and died at his home in alamogordo, n. m. in 1999 .
leonard david has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. he is former director of research for the national commission on space and is co - author of buzz aldrin' s 2013 book
mission to mars – my vision for space exploration ,
published by national geographic, with a new updated paperback version to be released next year. follow us @ spacedotcom, facebook or google +. originally published on urltoken .
exploring the history of space - age efforts that never got off the ground. by amy shira teitel
stapp’s interest in human tolerance tests was first peaked when he witnessed ejection seat tests in 1946 at wright field. ejection wasn’t a new idea, but it did raise some interesting biomedical questions. a pilot bailing out of his aircraft at high speed and high altitude would be hit with a blast of wind and a load of g - forces. what could be survive? textbooks of the day put 18 gs as the limit of human tolerance, but was that really the limit? and if it wasn’t, could there be a way to protect a pilot during a high speed crash? deceleration tests would go a long way in answering these questions, and so that became one of stapp research projects .
strapped in an unable to move, stapp and his team waited for the clouds overhead to break. stapp needed clear skies because part of the test involved photographing the run. high speed cameras on the ground were trained on the track, and a photographer in the back of a t - 33 piloted by joe kittinger would capture the end of the run from above .
stapp also set the record for the highest known g force ever voluntarily experienced by a human, which may not be an honour many strive to hold. he also sustained no serious lasting damage from the tests. stapp died in 1999 at the respectable age of 89 .
sources :
history of research in space biology and biodynamics
usaf historical division, office of information ;
the pre - astronauts
by craig ryan ;
animals in space
by colin burgess and chris dubbs; edwards afb (via internet archive); urltoken; new york times .
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dr. john paul stapp rides the sonic wind no. 1 at a more sedate speed in the space hall dedication parade in 1976 .
sonic wind no. 1, with stapp on board, reached 632 mph in 5 seconds at holloman air force base' s high speed test track, a historical achievement that made stapp the fastest man in the world in 1954 .
the fact that stapp rode this and we' re in sight of the test track, you add that all up together and it' s very sad to see it go ,
said museum executive director chris orwoll .
but if you' re going to do an exhibit about speed and put all the national treasures in there, i hate to say it but this is one of the ones that' s got to be in there. the nice thing is that alamogordo, holloman air force base, john stapp and sonic wind no. 1 are going to get some key visibility in front of millions of people – that' s a good thing .
the museum honors human achievement in space exploration. it also has memorials to the lives, both human and nonhuman, that have been sacrificed in the effort .
the smithsonian institution will possibly loan sonic wind no. 1 to the new mexico museum of space history again in 10 years .
in the meantime, orwoll said the museum is working with holloman' s high speed track to obtain a new artifact that was used for ejection seat testing. this new artifact will sit in sonic wind no. 1' s place in the outdoor exhibit. the museum will be getting a mercury capsule from the 1960s program from the smithsonian institution .
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with this concept the launch vehicle is supported by an eastward pointing rail or maglev track that goes up the side of a mountain while an externally applied force is used to accelerate the launch vehicle to a given velocity. using an externally applied force for the initial acceleration reduces the propellant the launch vehicle needs to carry to reach orbit. this allows the launch vehicle to carry a larger payload and reduces the cost of getting to orbit. when the amount of velocity added to the launch vehicle by the ground accelerator becomes great enough, single - stage - to - orbit flight with a reusable launch vehicle becomes possible .
the idea has been used in fiction several times, but so far as i know, no one is even discussing building one. in these days of spacex and competitors, i' d expect that someone would be talking about it if it were feasible, so i assume that it' s not currently .
i think air breathing jet engines can
get closer to orbit
already. still, only about 1 km / s at 20 km altitude. a far cry from the 8 km / s needed to be in the lowest orbit of about 300 km altitude. acceleration on the ground does not look attractive. unless on an airless world like the moon or some asteroid. but the effort of building heavy rails there puts it out of our lifetimes. and by then something better will have been thought of .
such concepts have constantly been proposed in various forms and shapes, some even seriously considered by nasa et al. from, say, the argus launch vehicle with maglifter launch assist to more recent any number of ground - based launch assist concepts that found their way into nasa' s integrated technology roadmap. and i believe some of this was discussed during past few nasa innovative advanced concepts (niac) symposiums. would have to check .
atmospheric drag at terrestrial altitudes reduce the effectiveness of building up speed on a terrestrial track .
similarly for reaching higher altitudes where the atmosphere would pose less of an issue, i don' t know how to estimate the feasibility of building the structure it would take to get much higher than earth' s mountains .
this is the only answer which actually addresses the actual question about an angled mountain launch. it could be improved with some actual numbers, but it' s good enough that i' m (belatedly) going to accept it .
1) as localfluff says, atmosphere. any velocity component from any sort of launch track is going to be basically horizontal. if you' re in vacuum and the launch velocity is a good portion of orbital velocity this would be a good thing .
1c) a very high launch velocity, say mach 40 (yes, i realize this is above orbital velocity. you' ll need to be well above orbital velocity to make up for drag losses .) this could actually be of some use. it' s only for payloads that can tolerate a lot of gs, both because of the launcher and the brutal deceleration that will happen when it hits the atmosphere. you' ll also need a beefy launch capsule to do this, but you get to orbit for only the cost of a circularization burn. if you have enough such cargo it might make sense .
i' m not sure how applicable this answer is - it' s based on a horizontal launch, and what i (and the quote) are envisioning is an angled one up the side of a mountain. depending on the mountain and the engineering of the ramp, that should be able to get you a significant vertical component. also, you have to balance the extra weight vs the fuel you don' t need to carry... but you can' t jettison the weight. i don' t know how that balances out .
@ bobson if you' re getting a substantial vertical component from going up the side of a mountain you' re talking about accelerations far beyond what a human can survive. at that point you might as well go with my case 1c .
@ loren pechtel: i don' t see the acceleration problem. unless i' ve forgotten my physics, a 5g acceleration should get you from 0 to speed of sound in 1. 25 km. there are plenty of mountains that offer much longer slopes .
@ loren pechtel: why isn' t getting to the speed of sound (or several times that) without expending any fuel, or having to build tankage for that fuel, not going to do much good? it' s eliminating a good bit of your first stage. see for instance the wikipedia article on saturn v launch urltoken and note how much fuel is burned to get it to sonic speed at altitude comparable to catapult ejection - 60 seconds of total 168 second 1st stage burn .
you would probably want to enclose it and evacuate the tube so you could accelerate through a vacuum or close to it .
since you now have a tube, you might want to use magnetic induction to propel it. but if not, you might want to ignite something behind it, and you have a launch gun .
thank you for your interest in this question. because it has attracted low - quality or spam answers that had to be removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation on this site (the association bonus does not count). would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead ?
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a rocket sled is a test platform that slides along a set of rails , propelled by rockets . as its name implies , a rocket sled does not use wheels . instead , it has sliding pads , called " slippers " , which are curved around the head of the rails to prevent the sled from flying off the track . the rail cross-section profile is that of a vignoles rail , commonly used for railroads . a rocket sled holds the land-based speed record for a vehicle , at mach 8.5 . 
a rocket sled is a test platform that slides along a set of rails, propelled by rockets. as its name implies, a rocket sled does not use wheels. instead, it has sliding pads, called " slippers ", which are curved around the head of the rails to prevent the sled from flying off the track. the rail cross-section profile is that of a vignoles rail, commonly used for railroads. a rocket sled holds the land-based speed record for a vehicle, at mach 8.5.
a rocket sled is a test platform that slides along a set of rails, propelled by rockets. as its name implies, a rocket sled does not use wheels. instead, it has sliding pads, called " slippers ", which are curved around the head of the rails to prevent the sled from flying off the track. the rail cross-section profile is that of a vignoles rail, commonly used for railroads. a rocket sled holds the land-based speed record for a vehicle, at mach 8.5.