John Hunter wants to shoot stuff into space with a 3,600-foot gun. And he’s dead serious—he’s done the math. Making deliveries to an orbital outpost on a rocket costs $5,000 per pound, but using a space gun would cost just $250 per pound.
Building colossal guns has been Hunter’s pet project since 1992, when, while a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he first fired a 425-foot gun he built to test-launch hypersonic engines. Its methane-driven piston compressed hydrogen gas, which then expanded up the barrel to shoot a projectile. Mechanical firing can fail, however, so when Hunter’s company, Quicklaunch, released its plans last fall, it swapped the piston for a combustor that burns natural gas. Heat the hydrogen in a confined space and it should build up enough pressure to send a half-ton payload into the sky at 13,000 mph.
Hunter wants to operate the gun, the “Quicklauncher,” in the ocean near the equator, where the Earth’s fast rotation will help slingshot objects into space. A floating cannon—dipping 1,600 feet below sea level and steadied by a ballast system—would let operators swivel it for different orbits. Next month, Hunter will test a functional, 10-foot prototype in a water tank. He says a full-size launcher could be ready in seven years, provided the company can round up the $500 million. Despite the upfront cost, Hunter says he has drawn interest from investors because his reusable gun saves so much cash in the long haul. Just don’t ever expect a ride in the thing: The gun produces 5,000 Gs, so it’s only for fuel tanks and ruggedized satellites. “A person shot out of it would probably get compressed to half their size,” Hunter says. “It’d be over real quick.”
How to Shoot Stuff into Space
STEP 1: HEAT IT
The gun combusts natural gas in a heat exchanger within a
chamber of hydrogen gas, heating the hydrogen to 2,600˚F and causing a 500 percent increase in pressure.
STEP 2: LET THE HYDROGEN LOOSE
Operators open the valve, and the hot, pressurized hydrogen quickly expands down the tube, pushing the payload forward.
STEP 3: TO INFINITY AND BEYOND
After speeding down the 3,300-foot-long barrel, the projectile shoots out of the gun at 13,000 mph. An iris at the end of the gun closes, capturing the hydrogen gas to use again.
via popular science
Some photos of the construction of zeppelins (above = USS Macon / below = USS Akron / far below = Hindenberg on a visit to NJ) and the ridiculous ladders that it took to get there.
In the first half of the twentieth century, there were great airships that sailed the skies, quite majestically. They were used both for transportation, and also in war in world war I and II. The German Zeppelin Airship company built the Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg for transcontinental and transatlantic travel. They were the cruise ships of the sky.
In the early days the Zeppelins were inflated with hydrogen gas for bouancy which worked very well, but was also very dangerous. Later the Americans found a way to effectively produce helium gas, so we had much safer airships. Although hydrogen has better bouyancy, it is highly explosive. In times of war, we would not share our safer helium with the Germans.
The German Zeppelin Airship LZ-126 “Hindenburg” had it’s famous flaming crash at the Lakehurst National Airport in New Jersy in the USA.
The basic fundamentals of motorbike design have remained pretty much the same over the last 50 years, but that could change if the Sharker ever lands in a showroom. While most cars switched to monocoque construction back in the ’60s or ’70s, motorcycles have stuck with a traditional supporting framework, sometimes with an added fairing for aerodynamics, pretty much since they were first invented.
The Sharker breaks this tradition by using its sexy carbon bodywork to support the rider, engine, and wheels, resulting in both lower weight and improved stiffness. Performance is impressive, with 140 horses ready to propel the Sharker to over 60 MPH in four seconds. Top speed can vary between 125 and 174 MPH depending on gearing choices.
The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.
For more information visit http://www.amnh.org
via youtube (Thanks Josh!)
from the artist:
Buildings have a life cycle that can last anywhere from a few years, to several decades or longer. Once a building has reached the end of its life cycle, it is taken down. By deconstructing a building, the components can be reused and recycled but also it creates additional waste as demolished concretes. I focused on the possibilities of bringing usage of industrial waste and shifting the value by using it.
via Hyungshin Hwang