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similar machinery is employed for hypersonic missiles - the plasma from the special ablation layer on the nose of the missile plays similar role to that bubble
by trhway 6y ago
similar machinery is employed for hypersonic missiles - the plasma from the special ablation layer on the nose of the missile plays similar role to that bubble wrap around torpedo. Also if i remember correctly SpaceX reverse engine firing in the stratosphere isn't that much to slow down and more to provide the plasma wrapper to decrease the atmospheric friction heating. For a space gun of the future i think it also would be possible to "preheat" the path ahead using the something like very powerful laser to decrease the air friction.
- mcswell 6y agoRe the space gun idea, didn't that idea come up back in the 80s wrt beam weapons under Reagan's Star Wars program? A laser ionizes a path to the target, and the particle weapon fires along that pre-ionized path.
- trhway 6y agoStar Wars had a lot of great tech ideas. Too bad the Cold War ended so soon - we'd have by now a nuclear propulsion, Moon and Mars bases and a lot of other great stuff ... as long as nobody pressed the button activating the pointy stuff :)