Recent comments in /f/space

lets_bang_blue t1_j6nlush wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in If the concepts of Project Orion were proven, why don't we use them for space guns? by [deleted]

25 years from now sure. But what value would raw materials be in space currently? Need to have an assembly team up there, which no one has. Or a robot to assemble, which no one has. The concept or something similar will eventually be used for raw materials but we are not at that stage of space exploration where we can fabricate our structures in space

5

stellarinterstitium t1_j6nkbci wrote

Reply to A spaceflight disaster was narrowly avoided in 1972. A series of intense solar flares exploded in August, just months before the launch of Apollo 17. Any astronauts on the moon at that time would have died from radiation. As NASA's new lunar missions progress, the threat of radiation still looms. by EricFromOuterSpace

The exigencies of this circumstance were depicted in the show "For All Mankind" on AppleTV. Season 2, Episode 1.

66

CantThinkOfOneUs t1_j6njht5 wrote

Reply to If the concepts of Project Orion were proven, why don't we use them for space guns? by [deleted]

>"ya but if you screw it up you now have 10t of raw iron hitting St. Louis at 30 km/s"

Nothing lost /s

For real, a large concern with nuclear pulse for launching is introducing radioactive material into our atmosphere. I wish I could back this up with a source right now but I recall a study saying that using nukes to launch something to orbit would, on average, give 10 people terminal cancer due to the radiation released per launch.

1

lets_bang_blue t1_j6niz5y wrote

Reply to If the concepts of Project Orion were proven, why don't we use them for space guns? by [deleted]

Your missing the massive accelerations needed to shoot something that starts on land and makes it into space. Spin Launch is doing something similar but taking time to spin things up so not crazy high gs. Secondly the air resistance of going so fast at low atmosphere provides heat shield issues. Generally speaking when rockets are going their fastest, they are in thin or no atmosphere. When they are in the thick sea level atmosphere, they are going extremely slow relatively speaking.

18

svarogteuse t1_j6nirtb wrote

Reply to If the concepts of Project Orion were proven, why don't we use them for space guns? by [deleted]

Super guns have been attempted. Space guns comes up fine on google.

What you are missing is the shock of initial launch. In a gun the projectile goes from 0 to its orbital speed virtually instantaneously. Very little other than solid objects survive the massive g forces involved. Certainly not people.

Project Orion lifted of slowly, each bomb pushing the craft (with a massive pusher plate to absorb shock for the payload) just a little higher and faster. That why it took many bombs not just one. A single bomb can launch something pretty high but that wasn't the Orion design because they wanted the payload to be less robust than a solid object.

7