Is it possible to build a giant cannon and fire a bullet capsule into space using modern technology?

Question

In the old movie "The first men in the moon" they used a substance called "cavorite" to coat the ship with, and cavorite could counter the effects of gravity. Now i realize that the show was just good old fashioned science fiction, but could a cannon be built that could fire a bullet capsule into space, i realize the moon is way out of the question.

Answer 1

Mathmatically maybe, but logistically, no. The acceleration at the instant of firing would be momentary and without continuous acceleration the projectile would fall back to Earth.

The largest Naval Gunships in the world can only fire a projectile a few miles (comparatively) to the thousands of miles it would have to travel to reach and maintain orbit. Earth's escape velocity is 25,000mph roughly. The object would not only have to achieve this speed, but maintain it.

So that's a no go for now.

Have fun!

Answer 2

Technically, yes. However, because of the extremely high velocity required to get a capsule to 100km it would be difficult. There actually was a program to do this, but I believe it was abandoned.

Orbit is out of the question. Even if the capsule could be fired at 18,000 mph, it would not have that velocity parallel to the surface of the earth, so would fall back. An orbit is only achieved when the craft is moving roughly parallel to the surface (otherwise it's orbit will intersect the earth).

Answer 3

Theoretically yes. Do a search for the HARP project (see link as a starting point).
The problem is that the acceleration that is needed to get a capsule to orbiting velocity (with the excess energy required to retain enough to compensate for aerodynamic drag) in the length of a cannon barrel requires extremely sturdy (and thus heavy) construction, reducing the effective payload.

Answer 4

The Earths' gravity is extremely strong. To launch someone into orbit from a cannon, you would have to shoot them so fast they would probably pass out. Since there is no acceleration once the cannon is fired, unless it was mega-powerful, it would fall back and burn up in the atmosphere. It is theoretically possible, however.

Answer 5

Theoretically the answer is yes.

There is project Harp that looks over this idea. see wikipedia project Harp and project babylon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Babylon)

There are lots of individuals who have been interested in this idea, but the stresses caused by firing this kind of weapon, and the amount of propellant necessary makes it very impracticle/impossible.

Another idea is to use large magnetic "rail guns" running up the side of very large mountains to be able to increase the power and speed of a projectile being launched to possibly reach orbit. the current term is the "coil gun" which is a type of ram accelerators that has been proposed as a way of launching payloads into space. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coilgun

here is what it says about scifi applicatins
Coilguns are a popular device in science fiction, especially sci-fi role playing and video games, where they go under such names as Gauss cannon, Gauss rifle, or Magnetic Accelerator Cannon. The examples are numerous. One example is presented in Neal Asher's recent novel, "The Voyage of the Sable Keech", in which an alien spaceship deploys a coilgun in orbit around the planet central to the storyline in order to attempt to destroy a target within a deep ocean on that planet. Another example is seen in the Machwarrior and Battletech games in the form of the naval and vehicle mounted Gauss rifles. Yet another example is in the Halo series of video games by Bungie,in which the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon is used by the humans as a weapon in ship-to-ship combat or to destroy ships(Super MAC gun)(Example-Cairo Defense Platform/Cairo Station)

The coil gun was actually first called the "electric gun" and first described in detail as a way to launch vehicles into outer space from the earth's surface in the 1897 science fiction novel "A Trip to Venus" by John Munro and published in 1897 by Jarrold & Sons, London. The book is out of copyright and freely available as a text file from the project gutenberg.org website at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13716 .

In the book Munro describes in great detail multiple coils fired in sequence by solenoids at a proper timing to achieve acceleration without too high of g forces affecting the passengers. The gun could be angled on a hillside if desired. Amazingly, this book also describes in detail electric gun launch for a passenger capsule equipped with onboard rockets, compressed gas jets and even retrofired bullets as a means to increase velocity and change direction as well as the use of planetary atmosphere aerobraking and parachutes for landing on a planet.

John Munro was also author of the "The Wire and the Wave" and "The Story of Electricity".

Answer 6

Yes, but you would die. Nobody could survive that. You'd need a gun the size of a skyscraper. The bullet would probably melt too, at least on the outside.

Rockets are alot more practical.

Answer 7

Maybe. Not into orbit but maybe to 100 kilometers, only to fall back down again, kind of like SpaceShip One.