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

We need more ideas such as this

[dreamchaser]

It'll always be more expensive to send people up, at least in the near term, but we will need to send up a lot of other things that could be done in unmanned launches using this or another innovative technology. Ideas such as this could work; it's merely an engineering problem at this point.

Re:We need more ideas such as this

[Kral_Blbec]

actually i would say a space elevator is a funding problem.

Re:We need more ideas such as this

[the_Bionic_lemming]

Who's going to buy the tylenol for the whales?

Acoustics are a bitch.

Re:We need more ideas such as this

[ceoyoyo]

There is the little matter of finding something to make a space elevator out of. Nobody knows how to make a nanotube cable strong enough to do the job.

I guess that's more a materials science challenge than an engineering one, but it certainly hasn't proven to be easy to solve.

Re:We need more ideas such as this

[ColdWetDog]

Engineering challenges can be solved easily.

Perchance, are you in management? Or Sales?

Re:We need more ideas such as this

[Entropy98]

design the cannon like a thermos bottle as sounds require a medium to propagate which is why in space no one can hear you scream.

So your going to have explosive pressure on one side, huge water pressure on the other side, and a vacuum in the middle?

Re:We need more ideas such as this

[dougisfunny]

I think they'd need to tether it to something in a geosynchronous orbit.

Re:We need more ideas such as this

[pnewhook]

actually i would say a space elevator is a funding problem.

Speaking as an aerospace engineer, I would say building a space elevator is a reality problem

Re:We need more ideas such as this

[DigiShaman]

1.26 seconds. That's less than the space between me and the car in front of me.

Please. The Moon drives around the Earth in a predictable orbit at the same speed. I'm fairly sure they're safe. Besides, nothing has happened yet for 4.53 billion years. Must be nice to have cheap insurance.

avoid lifting unused propellant

[DotDotSlashDot]

This subject line says it all when it comes to efficiently placing things in low earth orbit.

Re:Hunter should watch his back

[Chris Burke]

John Hunter: Note to self: Try to avoid working with Saddam Hussein.

Re:atmospheric stresses

[Nadaka]

Its not actually that preposterous. Some of the more advanced artillery shells are effectively rockets shot from cannons.

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

[interkin3tic]

Yes gents, Saddam Hussein could have given us cheap access to space ensuring new area of prosperity for mankind, and era of space colonization...and we killed him!

OR Saddam hired a quack who was assassinated before he was revealed to be a complete phoney.

Had there been something resembling a successful test, I'd say we may have screwed up, but the only mentioned test was a failure. Also I don't hold Saddam's judgment in very high regard, it doesn't sound like there was much peer review on this project, and the US tends to take useful technology and scientific talent from it's enemies rather than destroy it.

Therefore I doubt this was anything that would have been useful, but I suppose we'll probably never be able to verify or deny your conspiracy theory.

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

[fm6]

I think anybody on Slashdot who refers to Saddam as the martyred hero of space travel is not being serious.

If Saddam had taken half the resources he put into exotic weapons and invested in his conventional forces, he'd be alive today — and probably the most powerful man in the Middle East. But training and equipping armed forces is hard work. A lot of dictators just can't be bothered. Instead they model themselves on the villains in James Bond movies: lots of parties, gloating, glitter, and top secret projects, but none of the dreary stuff that has to do with actual governing.

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

[EdIII]

OR Saddam hired a quack who was assassinated before he was revealed to be a complete phoney.

What does that remind me of.......

Doc: Of course, from a group of Libyan Nationalists. They wanted me to build them a bomb, so I took their plutonium and in turn gave them a shiny bomb case full of used pinball machine parts.

In all seriousness, Saddam only thought he had all of this doomsday projects in the works. The reality, which is supported by evidence apparently (from what I hear), is that most people working for Saddam were terrified of him and his sons and flat out lied or blew smoke up his ass about how far along they were with his ultimate weapons.

The only thing more tragically retarded and pathetic is the fact that a president and some intelligence agencies fell for the same bullshit. Or did they? :)