China is building a railgun that can hurl crewed spacecraft into orbit
China is building a railgun that can hurl crewed spacecraft into orbit
Rockets being passé, China is working on using an electromagnetic railgun to launch crewed spacecraft the size of a Boeing 737, weighing 50 tonnes, into orbit. This remarkably ambitious project is even more ambitious than it seems at first glance.
Rockets being passé, China is working on using an electromagnetic railgun to launch crewed spacecraft the size of a Boeing 737, weighing 50 tonnes, into orbit. This remarkably ambitious project is even more ambitious than it seems at first glance.
And not get crushed by the G forces how exactly?
humans can still function when insane G forces have turned them into jelly right?
While railguns are known for rapidly accelerating projectiles to hypersonic speeds over the short length of a gun barrel, there's no limit on how slowly they can accelerate something or how long the "rail" part of the railgun can be. Accelerating "slowly" over a long distance is totally possible!
你们中有些人可能会死，但这是我愿意冒的风险
Just to save you guys a click, this is a Google translate of, "some of you may die but that is a risk I'm willing to take"
I hereby dub any crew member sent to space in this manner a Cannonaut.
If you want to reach LEO velocity and stay under 5g, you'd need a 860km long railgun...
This was posted in the correct community, because it's about as real as the hyperloop
That initial acceleration is gonna be a bit shitty.
yeet
Maybe even megayeet.
But I sure hope they can pull this off.