Navy Tests High-Tech Railgun in Virginia

AP ^ | 18 Jan 2007 | AP

[FLOutdoorsman]

Cool. R&D.

[operation clinton cleanup]

The technology could increase the striking range of U.S. Navy ships more than tenfold by the year 2020.

Good stuff brewing in our labs!

[kinoxi]

This should be scalable for space applications as well.

[FLOutdoorsman]

No doubt, possible Satellite Taser, or Alien Stun Gun.

[kinoxi]

I was thinking about launch capacity.

[madconserv]

Program it towards all Chinese satellites now.

[FLOutdoorsman]

No doubt.

Gustav-Old German Railgun
http://www.aopt91.dsl.pipex.com/railgun/Content/Railwayguns/German/Dora%20index.htm

I thought at one time Saddam was trying to build one.

[kinoxi]

Cool link, different propulsion system though.

[madconserv]

This is just the type of R&D that the Dems will block or de-fund if they win in 08. We must get back a republican majority.

[FLOutdoorsman]

Yeah, kinda glad Hitler did have todays weaponry.

[kinoxi]

Amazing to think of what affect a few decisions have made on this world.

[FLOutdoorsman]

insert *Not*

[happinesswithoutpeace]

Great find! bookmarked.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

ping.

[kinoxi]

Program it towards all Chinese satellites now.

They'll just send up a dozen more if the ones we were aiming at weren't decoys. They have the same problem with the US but many orders of magnitude greater.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Only for durable, nonliving (or at least no macroscopic living) things. The g forces would be huge.

[kinoxi]

The ability to manage the propulsion is inherent in the design. It can be slowed down. Start it out like a maglev train and increase speed in slower increments.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

So, something similar to a mass driver (from Wikipedia)?

[happinesswithoutpeace]

"I thought at one time Saddam was trying to build one."

Very true! It was called "Project Babylon" and was the brainchild of Dr. Gerald Bull (a Canadian) who was assassinated during the project. It is rumored that the CIA or Mossad killed him. The project ended when parts for it were seized in the UK.

I have a book about this entitled- Arms and The Man: Dr Gerald Bull, Iraq and the Supergun.

[timer]

A splinter group in the aerospace community was working on EMSL(ElectroMagnetic Space Launch)TWENTY YEARS AGO during the Star Wars/SDI period. The Rail Gun was one of the concepts studied. The main problem w/it is that the electric arc chews up the rails = constant refurbishment, IF you are firing LOTS of projectiles.

But then Reagan's plan of bankrupting the USSR over SDI funding WORKED. The USSR went belly up because they had a puny civilian economy whereas ours was robust and could easily afford it. Thus SDI funding was all but WHACKED, and with it EMSL.

Plus NASA, as a VESTED INTEREST in ROCKETS, didn't like the idea of EMSL showing what CROOKS they are. How? One pound in LEO is energy-worth(mv^2/2 + mgh)all of 4 KWH. At 10 cents/KWH that's 40 cents, cheaper than postage. How much does it cost to put one pound in LEO w/the shuttle?

The best idea, in my opinion, was the quenched superconducting rings-cannon. There is a sabot containing the 10kg projectile at the bottom of the 300' to 500' long cannon. It has a su-co field. You turn off the outer rings just ahead of the sabot with precisely timed lasars. It reaches the 5 mps injection velocity via magnetic attraction.

There is a vacuum within of course. At the end are 15 or more chambers separated by films, 1 psi step-ups to ambient 14.7 psi. They advance one frame w/each sabot-projectile passage, thus only minor vacuum pumping required.

The sharp nose of the projectile has lithium beads or pores for ablation-cooling. Just one Quenched su-co cannon could have been putting 2 shuttle loads/day into LEO for, say, a 10% system efficiency of $4/#....for the last TWENTY YEARS.

Why didn't it happen? VESTED INTERESTS : $20,000/# to LEO puts a LOT of money in NASA's pockets, yes? GREED overcame INNOVATION...