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I wonder what's the math on trying to use a huge rail gun on Mars to shoot things into orbit. I know that people have talked about using rail guns on the moon t
by Fred34 3y ago
I wonder what's the math on trying to use a huge rail gun on Mars to shoot things into orbit. I know that people have talked about using rail guns on the moon to shoot and other materials ore back to earth (or even to mars) -- but the moon has less of an atmosphere and less of a gravitational pull than mars.
- zizee 3y agoThis says it's possible: https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/8016/is-a-railgun-up-olympus-mons-possible https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/8016/is-a-railgun-... Note: I cannot vouch for its correctness.
- Fred34 3y agoI'll add that stack-exchange page to my bookmarks thanks.
- colechristensen 3y agoThe escape velocity for Earth is 11 km/s. The escape velocity for mars is 5 km/s. The situation for a ground launched projectile is of course worse because of air resistance losses. It's still really difficult to accelerate something to 5 km/s. (It's 2.5 km/s on the moon)
- rtpg 3y agoWikipedia says there are prototype railguns that can shoot at 3km/s now (wording: "can regulary exceed 3km/s")... are we at a point now where I could put a rail gun and a bunch of solar panels and batteries on the moon and just shoot (tiny) stuff into orbit? Not like the rocks on the moon are that useful for anything, but....
- Fred34 3y agoApparently there is helium-3 on the moon which could be used as a fusion reactor fuel. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3