Re: Launch Rails...

From: Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Date: Sat Apr 15 2000 - 00:15:57 MDT


> Michael S. Lorrey wrote: Practical questions:
> How long does the rail need to be to accelerate up to 2,000, 4,000, 6,000 and
> 8,000 mph respectively?

At 4 G, I get 13 miles, 51 miles, 115 miles and 204 miles respectively.

At 6 G, I get 8 miles, 34 miles, 76 miles and 136 miles respectively.

Any time Ive worked with rail launchers Ive had to assume they need to
accelerate like hell going down the rails, no wimpy 4 to 6 G. Otherwise
the rails are too long. But that shouldnt be that much of a problem:
we have plenty of rockets today, good sized ones, that can stand
30 G longitudinal, and we could go higher if we needed to.

And lets dispense with these english schminglish units. We
lose interplanetary probes that way... {8-[

{8^D spike



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:09:19 MDT