The Science Behind Building a Space Gun 131
An anonymous reader writes "Astronomer and gamer Scott Manley (more famous for his Kerbal Space program coverage) has created a fantastic video explaining the science behind building guns that could one day be used to launch payloads into space. It's not as easy as simply making a bigger gun, there's a whole host of unorthodox 'gun' designs which work around the limitations of garden variety propellants."
Re:I think it's called a mass driver (Score:4, Informative)
Some of the techniques resemble a mass driver, but many do not. It's actually an interesting video.
Re:Scaled Down Particle Accelerator (Score:2, Informative)
Why not scale down the LHC and build something that is capable of accelerating something relatively small say 10-100kg fast enough to make it to orbit instead of accelerating atoms to nearly the speed of light.
Accelerating charged particles and accelerating something more complex, like a 10kg payload, are in a completely different ballpark, unless you're happy with send particles into orbit.
Also, each of the protons in the LHC's beam have about as much energy as a fast baseball.
Re:Inexpensive way to send up inert objects (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Scaled Down Particle Accelerator (Score:4, Informative)