Discussion
There’s a lot of research money being spent on it as a weapon, especially by the US Navy for use as a replacement for the conventional gun. BAE Systems are working on it.
The acceleration is brutal, so nothing live would survive and anything else would need to be specially hardened as well. Perhaps on the moon it would be a viable way of getting some things off the surface, but I can’t see it being used on Earth for that anytime soon.
IIRC curious droid has a YouTube video about it.
The acceleration is brutal, so nothing live would survive and anything else would need to be specially hardened as well. Perhaps on the moon it would be a viable way of getting some things off the surface, but I can’t see it being used on Earth for that anytime soon.
IIRC curious droid has a YouTube video about it.
A similar concept for orbital insertion are 'ram accelerators' which are basically cannons shooting a shaped projectile into a barrel full of oxygen and hydrogen. The projectile acts like a ramjet and compresses the gases via shock waves, then combusts the mixture behind it. It has the same issues as coilguns and railguns, in that the forces involved are huge and require things like electronics to be potted so that bits don't detach. I imagine the forces involved on solder joints during a trip from zero to Mach 8 over a few metres are going to strip boards of components. Also ram accelerators don't require huge electrical power and don't suffer from ablation due to the high temperatures generated by arcing. Incidentally I believe this concept was similar, if not the same as the Baghdad supergun.
I have wondered about how you would use them for orbital insertion as surely there must also be some kind of size limit imposed due to the forces involved and material stresses, so the thing doesn't start to deform or break apart during launch and I can't imagine something bigger than a Cubesat surviving intact. Unless you can control the initial accelerations. My thoughts are that if you're going to build one to launch into space, it's going to need to be a lot longer than a ship's main gun so you might be able to stage the power applied along the barrel length? Interesting concepts though.
I have wondered about how you would use them for orbital insertion as surely there must also be some kind of size limit imposed due to the forces involved and material stresses, so the thing doesn't start to deform or break apart during launch and I can't imagine something bigger than a Cubesat surviving intact. Unless you can control the initial accelerations. My thoughts are that if you're going to build one to launch into space, it's going to need to be a lot longer than a ship's main gun so you might be able to stage the power applied along the barrel length? Interesting concepts though.
The problem with 'cannon' launch on earth is the muzzle velocity, LEO is mach 25. So due to air resistance you need to be going much faster than that at launch.
Launch altitude is critical and yet still, thermal will be a major problem, even if you launched it from the top of everest.
The other issue is that you must take a rocket to circularise your orbit and this all has to be able to cope with the stresses of launch.
Launch altitude is critical and yet still, thermal will be a major problem, even if you launched it from the top of everest.
The other issue is that you must take a rocket to circularise your orbit and this all has to be able to cope with the stresses of launch.
In 1966 Gerald Bull was firing objects into space, the 180kg Martlett 2 reached 590,000 ft a record to this day. If that had continued with proper funding I think he would have achieved a payload orbit, wouldn't have taken the Iraqi job and wouldn't be assassinated by Mossad.
Project HARP - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_HARP
Project HARP - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_HARP
Pretty cool
Using a big gun to launch things into space has been an idea for a long time.
From 1902
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNLZntSdyKE
Using a big gun to launch things into space has been an idea for a long time.
From 1902
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNLZntSdyKE
FourWheelDrift said:
In 1966 Gerald Bull was firing objects into space, the 180kg Martlett 2 reached 590,000 ft a record to this day. If that had continued with proper funding I think he would have achieved a payload orbit, wouldn't have taken the Iraqi job and wouldn't be assassinated by Mossad.
Project HARP - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_HARP
Space yes, orbit no.Project HARP - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_HARP
2.1km/s is well shy of orbital velocity.
annodomini2 said:
FourWheelDrift said:
In 1966 Gerald Bull was firing objects into space, the 180kg Martlett 2 reached 590,000 ft a record to this day. If that had continued with proper funding I think he would have achieved a payload orbit, wouldn't have taken the Iraqi job and wouldn't be assassinated by Mossad.
Project HARP - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_HARP
Space yes, orbit no.Project HARP - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_HARP
2.1km/s is well shy of orbital velocity.
Saw a post on a facebook group I'm in, a Chinese ship PLA Haiyang Shan has been spotted with what is thought to be a Railgun in place of the class's usual 37mm Gun. I expect that it's being used as a test bed, but apparently is the first ship to sail with one.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/chinese-navy-...
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/chinese-navy-...
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