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You would never make it through the atmosphere. At the speeds required to achieve orbit from a surface launch, the projectile leaving the apparatus and hitting
by bsamuels 13y ago
You would never make it through the atmosphere. At the speeds required to achieve orbit from a surface launch, the projectile leaving the apparatus and hitting the atmosphere would be like smashing it into an ocean of water. Even on a very tall mountain the air density is still enough to stop any projectile-based solution in its tracks.
- beloch 13y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Babylon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Babylon Iraq (with a Canadian scientist) almost made an artillery piece capable of putting material into orbit. Obviously, international sanctions gummed up the project a tad and it was basically over when the scientist was assassinated. Still, it was within the realm of possibility. Only recently have rail-guns started to usurp chemically propelled artillery in some roles, so it's not out of the question that rail-guns could put material into orbit. Even if the associated forces are too extreme for most equipment to survive, it could provide a way of getting raw materials into orbit at the very least.
- spiritplumber 13y agoInto space, or into orbit? The two are vastly different in terms of energy required.
- tantalor 13y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicklaunch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicklaunch was trying. Looks defunct now.
- bduerst 13y agoIf launching from vacuum directly into atmosphere, sure. I think that it poses an interesting engineering problem, not unlike the space elevator. If given enough velocity, a projectile with retractable wings could be launched into an atmospheric gradient and generate lift after leaving the accelerator. Whether or not we have materials used on the craft could survive the acceleration to escape velocity is the big question. It would take some serious testing.