icebones
Member
Ok, just for fun, what would it take for a conventional firearm (shoulder fired, or maybe mounted, like a cannon) to fire a projectile into space?
The fasted rifles we have today are only capable of around 4000-4500 fps. at best. and this is nowhere near fast enough
Im not a scientist, but im pretty shure the escape velocity for Earth is around 6.9 miles per second. so a bullet would have to be traveling 5280 feet per second to be equilivent to 1 mile per second.
this means we have to accelerate a projectile upwards of 36960 fps to acheve escape velocity... although you have to conpensate for the bullet slowing down due to gravity and drag. so it would need to be much faster.
given there is a limit to how fast conventional smokeless powder can accelerate a bullet. ive heard it has something to do with the sound barrier and the propellant can only burn as fast as the air around it will compress, or something along those lines.
now, im shure it might be possible to fire a bullet into space using a rail gun, i rember seeing a prototype gun the navy was working on that could fire a 7lb projectile at almost 7 times the speed of sound.
also, im shure some of you have heard of the light gas gun built by NASA to replicate high speed impacts of metiors and other space debris.
would it be possible to fire a projectile from the survace of the earth into space?
The fasted rifles we have today are only capable of around 4000-4500 fps. at best. and this is nowhere near fast enough
Im not a scientist, but im pretty shure the escape velocity for Earth is around 6.9 miles per second. so a bullet would have to be traveling 5280 feet per second to be equilivent to 1 mile per second.
this means we have to accelerate a projectile upwards of 36960 fps to acheve escape velocity... although you have to conpensate for the bullet slowing down due to gravity and drag. so it would need to be much faster.
given there is a limit to how fast conventional smokeless powder can accelerate a bullet. ive heard it has something to do with the sound barrier and the propellant can only burn as fast as the air around it will compress, or something along those lines.
now, im shure it might be possible to fire a bullet into space using a rail gun, i rember seeing a prototype gun the navy was working on that could fire a 7lb projectile at almost 7 times the speed of sound.
also, im shure some of you have heard of the light gas gun built by NASA to replicate high speed impacts of metiors and other space debris.
would it be possible to fire a projectile from the survace of the earth into space?