3 ms·
Probably not, no. The biggest guns (see Wikipedia on Project HARP) can get a payload to 100 mi, but we can't yet combine that with the horizontal speed necessar
by celoyd 17y ago
Probably not, no. The biggest guns (see Wikipedia on Project HARP) can get a payload to 100 mi, but we can't yet combine that with the horizontal speed necessary to orbit. The problem (I gather) is the atmosphere. Sputnik was traveling along its orbit at about 18k kph, 10 times the velocity quoted for this shell, or about Mach 25 at sea level. Your muzzle velocity will have to be much higher to get it outside the atmosphere going that fast, and the shell will have to withstand ~30 seconds of shuttle-reentry-like heating and buffeting.
Possible, definitely, but not with this gun.
- pg 17y agoIs there some practical limit to the muzzle velocity of a gun?
- celoyd 17y agoNot really, no. Especially if you use barrel-less electromagnetic designs. The Navy is testing a rail gun that fires 3.2 kg at 9k kph. Again, it's the acceleration and heating on the projectile that I would worry about. Then again, I think Project HARP found that electronics survived the firing better than they expected in their fairly crude sand and epoxy suspensions. One strategy would be to conventionally launch a big satellite factory robot with the most fragile parts (fuel, solar cels, glass instruments, ...) and then do cheap gun launches with the more durable parts at your leisure.