A Space Cannon That Might Actually Work

Unequivocal writes "Chalk another one up to Jules Verne. Physicist John Hunter is proposing a space cannon with a new design idea: it's mostly submerged. 'Many engineers have toyed with the [space cannon] concept, but nobody has came up with an actual project that may work. Hunter's idea is simple: Build a cannon near the equator, submerged in the ocean, hooked to a floating rig ... A system like this will cut launch costs from $5,000 per pound to only $250 per pound. It won't launch people into space because of the excessive acceleration, but those guys at the ISS can use it to order pizza and real ice cream.' Though it won't work on people, with launch costs that low, who cares?"

Comments

Hunter should watch his back

[hyades1]

The last guy with a plan to build a super-cannon (a Canadian named Bull) did some work for Saddam Hussein. The Israelis didn't like that much, so they murdered him.

Google Tech Talks

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is an interesting "tech talk" at Google where John Hunter explains the workings of the cannon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IXYsDdPvbo

Re:Google Tech Talks

[QuantumG]

It's so unfortunate that the press seems unwilling these days to dig even a *little* to get the story. Slashdot is linking to a blog, which is linking to Popular Science which is unwilling to even link to the company's website which has that tech talk embedded. It's like a 21st game of "telephone" and the message gets degraded at every retelling!

Re:atmospheric stresses

[RobVB]

You could shoot a rocket from a cannon, meaning you'd need less fuel (meaning a smaller fuel tank, meaning even less fuel) to get it up to speed.

Terrible article

[QuantumG]

Wow, that article is horrid. They don't even mention Hunter's startup company: Quicklaunch. On that page you'll find his Google Tech Talk on the subject which answers many of the questions that people are asking here.

Re:More wildly optimistic cost estimates

[malakai]

10 mins into the Google Tech Talk he gives a slide with the amortization cost per lb. About 20 mins in, he breaks the project up into phases and costs needed to complete each phase.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IXYsDdPvbo
It's worth watching the video for more info on G-Force hardening, Hydrogen re-capture, per-lb cost and project milestone/costs.

Re:We need more ideas such as this

[MR.Mic]

Do you realize just how far away the moon is from Earth?

This to-scale image should give you an idea of just how ridiculous this idea is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Speed_of_light_from_Earth_to_Moon.gif

Re:Duh, we bomb the shit out of those who have the

[sznupi]

The man doesn't seem like a quack to me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_HARP
Also, the only mentioned test wasn't exactly a failure what I see; it just revealed some problems, which is understandable with such project.

(and y'know, I was aiming more at Funny...)