
Will a Space Cannon Fuel the Next Moon Landing? - gibsonf1
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/01/25/space-cannon-fueling-moon-landing/
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stan_rogers
Whatever the opposite of spinning in one's grave is, Gerald Bull would be
doing that right about now. This is just Project HARP recapitulated -- and I'd
be willing to bet that a significant amount of the data behind this came from
the Iraqi superguns Bull designed.

It's not detailed in the report, but I wonder if they've considered the
"watermelon seed squeeze" method (wherein the projectile flies through a
combustible gas mixture in a weakly-sealed barrel tube, compressing the
mixture with its nose cone, creating a combustion zone about two-thirds of the
way along a "spitzer" type projectile, thus applying the expansive force
inward against the tail cone). That would either create one hell of a high-
speed projectile, significantly reduce the barrel length required -- or even
allow tolerable accelleration from, say, a linear electric motor's initial
shove by simply stratifying different gas mixtures along the launch tube to
control the combustion velocity. (Cheap 1-mil poly film would maintain the
separation of gasses well enough and fail safely.)

Man, I has to go into rocket surgery. Or maybe double-nought spying.

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thirdusername
There was a google tech talk given by Quicklaunch (that this article is about)
that was reasonably interesting which also covers other methods and why they
are insufficient if you want more details:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IXYsDdPvbo>

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mixmax
_"I know the astronauts are going to come after me for this, but fortunately
they are all elderly so they won't be able to catch me."_

I wouldn't underestimate Buzz Aldrin:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOo6aHSY8hU>

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KaiP
How could you use this for manned flight? Assuming a (best-case) linear
acceleration, accelerating to 25000 mph over 1 km would be 12736 g.

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hristov
You would use it just to lift the rocket fuel for manned flight. It would lift
rocket fuel which would be stored in depots in orbit.

The astronauts would come on conventional rockets. But then they would be able
to refuel from the orbital depots for the later stages of their flight instead
of having to carry all fuel with them. Thus, you make the mission cheaper.

You still need really stable rocket fuel in order to handle those
accelerations without exploding.

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KaiP
Ah okay, thanks for the explanation.

