The problem with putting stuff in space is that it's just so damn expensive; otherwise everybody would be doing it (apart from just governments and eccentric billionaires). Sending a mere pound of material into space these days costs over $10,000 using conventional rockets. Thinking unconventionally, Derek Tidman, president of Advanced Launch Corporation, came up with the Slingatron: a launcher that shoots projectiles into space by spinning them faster and faster until they reach escape velocity and then firing them up into the final frontier.

Ideas for shooting objects and vehicles into space (as opposed to launching them using pricey rocket fuel) have been around for decades, but most never got traction because of problems like heat shielding and friction. But Tidman says he's solved those issues with thermal protection and special coating, among other innovations, and proposes that a launcher that could be built using existing materials.

Since the centripetal forces involved would be pretty severe, a Slingatron couldn't be used to get passengers into space. But satellites, construction materials and ashes of dead Star Trek actors could be viable projectiles if the project ever advances beyond the development stage. — Peter Pachal

Slingatron, via Danger Room