If I was on the moon could I load moonrocks into a sniper rifle, fire at my yard & sell 'em for a mint on ebay

Question

basically, is it possible because of gravity to shoot moon rocks from the moon to earth - I also have access (metaphorically...) to a medieval cannon, should the need arise.

Answer 1

no oxygen or atmosphere of any kind on the moon, so no way for the gunpowder in your cannon to ignite. you pull the trigger and it goes "click"

Now if you had a magnetic rail gun though . . .

Answer 2

As I recall, you need a muzzle velocity of around 1400 m/s to hit Earth from the moon, so something a bit more modern than that medieval cannon is called for.

Getting yourself and your gun to the moon is a big if, of course. The Apollo program cost $25 billion in 1969 dollars. You'd have to sell a lot of moonrocks to make a profit.

There are also a few minor technical details, like actually hitting your backyard from 238,000 miles away, and keeping the rocks from burning up on re-entry.

Answer 3

Actually, in theory yess. A rifle--even a sniper rifle--doesnt have a high enough muzzle belocity. But engineers have looked at this idea for getting payloads (e.g. raw matierals for orbital industry) to Earth--or at least to lunar orbit where it would be easy to transfer them to Earth orbit.

That's probably the real value--not shipping direcly to earth. But we are likely to see something like that. Generically, devices to do this are called "mass drivers" Most involve some form o felectromagnetic induction to accelerate the payload--in the case of what you are talking about, in the form of a "cannon" that uses induction rather than gunpowder.

BTW--the idea goes back to Jules Verne "From the Earth to the Moon." And, using the electromagnetic induction scenario--Robert Heinlein "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" Both excellant novels. Though other writers since have used the idea for stories as well.

Mass driver: Any of several proposed methods of space transportation that use an external system to accelerate a payload/spacecraft, as opposed to internal propulsion systems.

Answer 4

If you're going to spend 25 billion dollars going to the moon, you'd better bring back a heck of a lot of moon rocks to make a profit. Besides, your gun/cannon would not fire on the moon because the gunpowder wouldn't ignite. No oxygen on the moon. And anything that, somehow, made it towards Earth would burn up. Better just bring them back in a spaceship. A really, really big spaceship.

Answer 5

You would have to use a Gas Rifle not a normal combustion rifle. Once launched it would have to have enough energy (initial thrust) to travel between the two conflicting gravity wells and be on a vector where it would intercept the correct orbital approach to Earth. Then there is the problem of getting the rock to re enter the earths atmosphere, so it would have to be a fair sized chunk and that hitting your yard would cost you quite a bit of money.
So yes possibly, but not really.

Answer 6

I'm pretty sure that you don't need to go to the moon in order to do that. You can sell moon rock on eBay all day long without even going to the moon. You see, people are real gullible. All you have to say is that the rocks are from the moon, and you know what they say about, there is a sucker born every minute.

Answer 7

It wouldn't work out. Once those rocks hit the earth's atmosphere they would burn up or graze off the surface of the atmosphere and be ejected back into space. If they were really huge, they might just penetrate into the earth's atmosphere without burning up, but they would not land in your back yard.

Answer 8

yeah as said, no oxygen no fire. Although lets say that somehow you could get the gun to fire, it still wouldn't work as the moonrocks would burn up on re-entry to the earth....unless you shot a big moon rock that is ;o)

Answer 9

Well, if you can fire them at 5324 miles per hour (7810 ft per second) ... and if the rocks don't burn up in the atmosphere ... and if you can hit your yard from a distance of 240,000 miles ...

If you can get to the moon, wouldn't it be easier to sell your story to some publisher for 10 million bucks?

Answer 10

1. Gunpowder will burn on the moon.

2. It would cost too much to get there.

3. The ballistics needed to accurately deliver them to your front door would take a super computer to calculate.

4. How would you prove to e-bay buyers they were authentic?

5. 5 points please.