Physicist Proposes Using Cannon to Fire Payloads into Space

Physicist John Hunter has proposed the construction of a 1.1-kilometer-long cannon that could fire a 450 kg payload into orbit. David Shiga writes in New Scientist:

The gun is based on a smaller device Hunter helped to build in the 1990s while at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California. With a barrel 47 metres long, it used compressed hydrogen gas to fire projectiles weighing a few kilograms at speeds of up to 3 kilometres per second.

Now Hunter and two other ex-LLNL scientists have set up a company called Quicklaunch, based in San Diego, California, to create a more powerful version of the gun.

At the Space Investment Summit in Boston last week, Hunter described a design for a 1.1-kilometre-long gun that he says could launch 450-kilogram payloads at 6 kilometres per second. A small rocket engine would then boost the projectile into low-Earth orbit.


Pictured is a HARP gun, a Cold War-era device used to fire instruments into the upper atmosphere.

Link via Popular Science | Image: NASA

Comments (10)

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Newest 5 Comments

is that the blender show, where those crazy guys with blenders and their soon to be blended gadgets? how about blending sony's battery? wonder if it explodes...
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Coolest job on earth : the blentech guy's!

When archery training we used to put a lighter at 60 or 80 feet, with a lit candle 3 feet under it.
The first one to explode his arrow won!
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This wasn't on Will It Blend. It was on a new show called Time Warp on The Discovery Channel.

The guy from Will It Blend was on the show, though and it was one of his blenders.
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It was on the Discovery Channel show Time Warp, and yes, the Will It Blend guy was a guest. What's impressive (and as can be seen in the video) is the blender still works fine after the explosion.
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