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Post by Vinny on Oct 31, 2024 10:09:53 GMT
They fire projectiles at Mach 7.5 with a range of 110 miles.
Amazing tech.
Could it be adapted to launch satellites into space?
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Post by piglet on Oct 31, 2024 10:26:54 GMT
I wonder if they have revealed this to put the heeby jeebies on the rooskies. At mach 7.5 surely whatever size of bullet it could knock out a fleet of tanks in seconds couldnt it. ? And certainly in my minds eye, you could get instant mincemeat of Russian soldiers, all that would bee needed are lasgne sheets, carrot, onion, and good food in less than an hour.
Im not sure about it though, eating Russian soldiers may result in all sorts of poxes for the consumeer.
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Post by Vinny on Oct 31, 2024 10:58:36 GMT
Energy requirements are enormous, they're presently fitted on ships with nuclear reactors.
Saying that, the remaining surface ships of the Black Sea Fleet could be taken out in seconds.
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Post by Dan Dare on Oct 31, 2024 11:03:54 GMT
This is a good example of the sort of topic which does not belong in the Mind Zone.
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Post by Vinny on Oct 31, 2024 11:13:01 GMT
Magnetic rail gun technology can propel an object to Mach 7.5. It has the potential to be developed to provide cheap space launches for satellites. Back in the 1960's Gerald Bull had a proposal to use a very large cannon to fire spacecraft into orbit, it was called Project HARP (High Altitude Research Project). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_HARP a test launch fired a projectile to 179 km above the Earth. If a sufficiently powerful magnetic launcher can be developed, using the same basic principle, of ballistically firing an object into orbit, satellites, even sections for space stations could be launched into orbit with first stage propulsion done on the ground. It would drastically reduce weight and save a lot of fuel. |
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Post by Dan Dare on Oct 31, 2024 11:20:16 GMT
Gee whiz.
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Post by Vinny on Oct 31, 2024 11:58:13 GMT
Indeed, let's say you want to put a weather satellite or a communications satellite in orbit, right now it requires a multi stage rocket. In principle it could be housed in an aerodynamic fairing and launched single stage via a ground based propulsion system.
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Post by jonksy on Oct 31, 2024 12:01:13 GMT
They use the same technology on the launch Catapults on the new ford class aircraft carriers...
The Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS)
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Post by Orac on Oct 31, 2024 12:29:37 GMT
Could it be adapted to launch satellites into space? I believe the real problem with any such proposal is the implied acceleration / forces and the speeds The projectile has be going at escape speed as it leaves the atmosphere. Either you have a very long railgun or you have a very high acceleration which would destroy a complex internal mechanism. You also have a projectile moving very fast indeed through the denser lower atmosphere - which is a bomb going off I think doing it from the moon is a realistic proposal - (from memory) you would only need 6g for a few miles to escape the moon |
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Post by Vinny on Oct 31, 2024 14:04:22 GMT
Solid state devices would have no problems whatsoever. Obviously it would be lethal to launch astronauts by this method.
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Post by Baron von Lotsov on Oct 31, 2024 14:18:19 GMT
They fire projectiles at Mach 7.5 with a range of 110 miles. Amazing tech. Could it be adapted to launch satellites into space? It needs to go at Mach 33 to escape the earth's gravity, but a low earth orbit would be a bit less. |
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Post by Orac on Oct 31, 2024 14:32:50 GMT
Solid state devices would have no problems whatsoever. Obviously it would be lethal to launch astronauts by this method. It's not true to say that they wouldn't necessarily be affected - they have a limit. Take a surface mount ic and put it in a vice. I think the limit is typically about 200 - 400g. To send something into earth orbit from the surface, the acceleration over any reasonable distance is going to be huge. That's not the whole problem though - where do you get your power from? |
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Post by Vinny on Oct 31, 2024 14:36:00 GMT
Nuclear power station as close to the launch site as is safe, to reduce impedance and maximise energy efficiency.
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Post by Orac on Oct 31, 2024 14:40:10 GMT
Nuclear power station as close to the launch site as is safe, to reduce impedance and maximise energy efficiency. I mean the power to the IC |
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Post by Baron von Lotsov on Oct 31, 2024 14:40:44 GMT
Nuclear power station as close to the launch site as is safe, to reduce impedance and maximise energy efficiency. The way it is done is a bank of super capacitors. You could never present such a spike to a generator supply. It would go crazy. It's the dI/dt you want to worry about. It's got to dump the entire energy in a very fast time and create a ridiculously high current. You can take your time charging the super capacitor bank. It would not mind if you took days to do it. |
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