> flying object with perfectly controlled laser launched from a trebuchet
Is what I considered to be ambiguous because it wasn't clear to me that you were assuming the system would be either 'laser launched' or 'launched by a from a trebuchet' with the laser part only applying to the object, regardless of your mention of:
> The laser in the study is moving with the projectile,
Your comments after that made it clear that we are both on the same page regarding the laser part is referring to the payload.
The difficulty being your point is not that interesting to me when i made the post, but the possibility of being able to send something into LEO while minimizing drag effects on the payload to something negligible along the flight path of the payload.
The $2000 came from the cost of the trebuchet system, I'm more interested in at what price point would a system be possible (Ideally below the cost of hypersonic missiles [0] now that I assume use something like this) with a rail gun kind of system.
I don't see how 'laser in the study is moving with the projectile' is in any way, form, or shape ambiguous.
And the $2000 price point is not from the paper but from your own post.