Table of Contents
Would a railgun work in space?
According to Space, the electromagnetic railgun peaked at Mach 6, which means six times the speed of sound. If astronauts can station at the moon and mine resources, the said speed is just a fraction “slower” than the escape velocity. Thereafter, the electromagnetic railgun can toss the material into space.
Which countries have electromagnetic railgun?
The United States (Office of Naval Research, Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division and BAE Systems), India (DRDO), the UK (DRA), Japan (ATLA), Russia as well as China all have electromagnetic railgun research projects at various stages of advancement.
Is a rail gun possible?
They do not currently exist in a practical, usable form. A helical railgun was built at MIT in 1980 and was powered by several banks of, for the time, large capacitors (approximately 4 farads).
Why are Railguns better?
One of the greatest advantages of military railguns is the low cost of the projectiles. They carry no internal propellant, as they are propelled by electricity. They also need no explosive charge, because the kinetic energy imparted by a projectile travelling at seven times the speed of sound is what does the damage.
What would happen if you fired a railgun in space?
In space there is no air to convect heat away from the barrel. Radiation occurs very slowly, and conduction into the rest of the gun would literally cook your hands.
How does an electromagnetic rail gun work?
How Does a Railgun Work? The basic principle behind a railgun is that it uses an electric current to create a magnetic field. Current travels from the power source up one rail, through the projectile which acts as a connecting wire, and back down the other parallel rail.
The US navy has a railgun that can shoot projectiles at up to 5,000mph. To fire, the gun needs 25megawatts of electricity – but most battleships only have nine. The impact can be measured at up to 32,000,000 joules.
What do Railguns shoot?
The electromagnetic railgun (EMRG) is a weapon that uses electricity instead of gunpowder to send projectiles downrange. Railguns use magnetic fields created by high electrical currents to accelerate a projectile to Mach 6, or 5,400 miles an hour.
Could a railgun be used to launch a vehicle into space?
Railguns can acheive a muzzle velocity of a projectile on the order of 7.5 km/s. The Earth’s escape velocity is 11.2 km/s. It seems to me that a railgun style launch device built into a deep shaft such as an abandoned mine could reasonably launch a vehicle into space.
Are We transgressing planetary boundaries that keep civilization safe?
From the Stockholm Memorandum Science indicates that we are transgressing planetary boundaries that have kept civilization safe for the past 10,000 years. Evidence is growing that human pressures are starting to overwhelm the Earth’s buffering capacity.
When did the UN adopt the concept of planetary boundaries?
The United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon endorsed the concept of planetary boundaries on 16 March 2012, when he presented the key points of the report of his High Level Panel on Global Sustainability to an informal plenary of the UN General Assembly.
How do human activities contribute to the transgression of planetary boundaries?
Human activities related to agriculture and nutrition globally contribute to the transgression of four out of nine planetary boundaries. Surplus nutrient flows (N, P) into aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are of highest importance, followed by excessive land-system change and biodiversity loss.