Hypersonic space cannon promises 10 minutes from ground to orbit

https://newatlas.com ^ | April 14, 2022 | By Loz Blain

[noiseman]

We would have been great friends!.......................

Ha!…no doubt. Much mischief followed the thought, “I wonder what would happen if…” To this day, I am still thankful that we didn’t put punji sticks in the bottom of the vacant lot pit. We discussed it, and it was a close call, but whatever morsel of common sense we had managed to develop by that age finally prevailed.

[Red Badger]

I did the Tarzan thing with vines in the old oak trees.
That’s when I learned about ‘gravity’...................

[fireman15]

I stunk up the house....................

When I was a kid I had catalogs filled with chemicals and lab equipment which I ordered from with my dad's help using profits from building planter boxes made from cedar fencing. I had an impressive home chemistry lab set up complete with a lot of stands and glassware including various types of glass condensers both homemade and commercial. It would have made some of the "Breaking Bad" set designers envious.

Unfortunately, I produced a fairly large volume of hydrogen sulfide in a flawed set up which I intended to fill balloons with. I stunk up the house shortly before my mother had a group of church friends coming over. Despite promising to keep noxious odors to a minimum in the future my indoor chemistry experiments were over.

I was still able to get away with filling balloons outside with hydrogen which I detonated with fire crackers taped to their sides. I also assembled large bundles of balloons which I hung multiple long strips of toilet paper from which I would light on fire as the assembly slowly ascended. It made impressive Hindenburg style fiery displays with burning strips of toilet paper descending on the busy road below occasionally causing traffic disruptions and even the police driving by to see what was going on.

[bobcat62]

I wonder how far it can shoot a Democrat.

[noiseman]

I did the Tarzan thing with vines in the old oak trees. That’s when I learned about ‘gravity’...................

Evel Knievel was also a bad influence back then. Jumping StingRays wasn’t so bad, but when we got older and graduated to 10-speeds, it took a few trips over the handle bars to learn that they don’t jump very well. The ensuing hilarity (when it was one of your friends flying through the air) was worth it, though.

[noiseman]

I wonder how far it can shoot a Democrat.

I don’t know, they’re the densest substance in the known universe.

[KarlInOhio]

We wrote about SpinLaunch's remarkable kinetic launch system earlier this week, which spins a rocket up to incredible speeds

And the cannon guys said "Incredible speed is too slow".

[fireman15]

Ya adapt and use what ya got.

Potatoe gun with PVC pipe and fittings... usually using propane as the propellant.

[noiseman]

Unfortunately, I produced a fairly large volume of hydrogen sulfide in a flawed set up which I intended to fill balloons with. I stunk up the house shortly before my mother had a group of church friends coming over. Despite promising to keep noxious odors to a minimum in the future my indoor chemistry experiments were over.

Another science career cut short by a short-sighted parent.

When I was around 7 or 8, we lived in a house that had a huge exhaust fan in the ceiling upstairs that exhausted hot air into the attic. During one of the colder months, my parents were hosting a dinner party and I decided to take the other kids upstairs to show them the big fan. While the adults were sitting around downstairs chatting in front of the fireplace, I began my fan demonstration. Within a few seconds we heard screaming coming from downstairs, followed by a cloud of smoke and adults running past the staircase. Apparently, the fan was so powerful it pulled the smoke from the fireplace inward into the living room.

Hey, at least it wasn’t as bad as when we were visiting my dad’s friend and his family. He was a barber, and his son made the mistake of showing me all of his dad’s cool barber supplies in the basement. I didn’t understand why they all got so upset; I thought his kid looked good with a reverse Mohawk.

[Hebrews 11:6]

[Chode]

BULL!!! HARP...

[Navy Patriot]

Dad stopped me before I could get that far, but I did make a 3' cannon using cast soft paraffin wax projectiles and cherry bomb explosive propellant.

At the same time, I had Second Amendment discussions in class, with my grade school civics teacher about my right to build a cannon.

I was not popular with the teachers, I was, with the male students.

[Navy Patriot]

Concise and to the point.

Is it too early to squeeze Six?

[Navy Patriot]

3’ was the barrel length.

[PIF]

I remember a kid who did something similar - except the flash burned off his eyebrows, part of his nose and forelock. Phil something or other

[PIF]

I did the Tarzan thing with vines in the old oak trees.
That’s when I learned about ‘gravity’

—
We did a vine thing and learned about poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac ...

[fireman15]

Another science career cut short by a short-sighted parent.

Yes, it's true. I was still able to take chemistry classes in both Jr. High and High School and college, but alas the thrill and creativity was gone. Fortunately, some of the lessons learned were put to good use when I got into Hazmat and eventually became the senior officer on my shift. I think because of familiarity from my early experience I was less distracted by fear of what might happen than many of my coworkers.

We once responded to a natural gas main that had been hit in the middle of night by an excavator. The contractor called the gas company before us, so they were already on scene and had a command structure established when we arrived. We started evacuating the immediate area. I asked the gas company leadership how we could best assist and what the risks were if something caused the leak to ignite.

The very experienced gas company expert said that the damage would be minimal because the gas was going up and quickly dissipating in the night breeze into a mixture that was not within the flammable range. He said that it would likely create a fireball above the ditch where they were working and that he wanted us to have hose streams ready to protect their personnel. Shutting off the main was not a good option because it supplied a large area, and this would create additional problems.

When my battalion chief showed up, he freaked out. First, he was mad that I had not made myself the leader of the command structure. Then he and his aid said that if ignition occurred it would act like a large air/fuel bomb and burn down the entire area. They had no clue what they were talking about because they had no familiarity with large gas leaks and working with the gas company. I had been on other similar calls with the same cast of characters.

I explained my chief's concerns to my contacts at the gas company. We went through the motions to alleviate his concerns and get him to go away. They fixed the leak while we with the help of the polices evacuated the area and provided hose stream protection for their crews and had paramedics standing by.

My point is that when people have no familiarity with Tom Foolery from an early age their comfort level dealing with actual emergencies later in life is often greatly compromised. So, some of the stupid stuff we did as kids and young people actually served a useful purpose.

I love your story about the exhaust fan. I have something slightly similar but have blabbed long enough.

[fireman15]

Dad stopped me before I could get that far, but I did make a 3’ cannon using cast soft paraffin wax projectiles and cherry bomb explosive propellant.

That is actually just a picture from the internet. The ones we made had about a 3 or 4 foot barrel length just like yours. But they could still send a potato a long ways. The advantage of propane either from a tank or starter fluid, hair spray or similar is that it burns slower and does not put so much stress on the system.

[Red Badger]

I already knew about those. I used muscadine and virginia creeper vines.............

[Chode]

go ahead, give it a shot, roll the dice and take yer chances... 8^)