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

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

[couchslug]

Keeping Saddam from plinking Israel was well worth killing Gerald Bull, though I do appreciate that Saddam was the only person capable of keeping Iraqis from doing to each other what they did after he was removed.

We don't urgently need people (as opposed to machines which are more useful) in space and that nonsense about prosperity for all mankind won't follow from space exploration.