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Railgun breaks its own world record
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Author:  Peltz [ Thu Dec 16, 2010 1:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Railgun breaks its own world record
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/navy-electr ... -9382.html
Quote:
In last week's test fire, it achieved a record-breaking muzzle velocity of Mach 8.That's enough to launch its solid warhead up to 125 miles away, and deliver 32 megajoules on impact.


Awesome.
Author:  derf [ Thu Dec 16, 2010 4:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Railgun breaks its own world record
Mmm, what applications could this be relevant to?

I see a mini rail gun replacing main guns of tanks, where high velocity is critical. Other than that, warships?
Author:  Arathorn [ Thu Dec 16, 2010 5:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Railgun breaks its own world record
Ships would be a good choice. No more need to carry shells that include their own propulsion, and big ships already have a nuclear reactor, so the only thing they'd have to add is capacitors to build up the power large enough to fire.
Author:  Satis [ Thu Dec 16, 2010 5:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Railgun breaks its own world record
If this is the same test I was reading about a bit ago (I'm sure it was), it's for the Navy for warships, like you guys surmised. From a New Scientist article on the subject.

Quote:
Next, the navy plans to get the mega-gun onto ships: "The 33-megajoule shot means the Navy can fire projectiles at at least 110 nautical miles, placing sailors and marines at a safe standoff distance and out of harm's way," said Nevin Carr, chief of Naval Research at the Office of Naval Research, which provides science and technology to the US Navy and Marine Corps. "This demonstration moves us one day closer to getting this advanced capability to sea," Nevin said in a press release.

According to the Daily Mail, scientists believe technology will almost double the power of the gun by 2025, "enabling it to send a bullet 200 miles in 6 minutes".

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/ ... nline-news
Author:  Satis [ Thu Dec 23, 2010 5:57 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Railgun breaks its own world record
Apparently the Navy plans to use rail guns to launch aircraft from aircraft carriers, as a replace for the steam-powered catapults they use now.

http://dvice.com/archives/2010/12/electromagnetic-1.php
Quote:
Compared to a steam catapult, the railgun catapult is much smaller, more efficient, simpler to maintain, gentler on airframes, and can deliver up to 30% more power. It's also capable of being cranked down a whole bunch, meaning that it can also launch smaller (and more fragile) unmanned drones.
Author:  Peltz [ Thu Dec 23, 2010 7:45 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Railgun breaks its own world record
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/NASA-Railgu ... -9468.html

Yea the railgun tech is our "Mass Effect." Apparently it can be used to launch junk into space as well. :D Will this be our Gate system in vastness of space, who knows.
Author:  Rinox [ Thu Dec 23, 2010 11:52 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Railgun breaks its own world record
Isn't space postively riddled with debris as it is? Like, up to the point that it actually endangers/impedes human expansion? :O Or maybe it's capable of firing stuff outside the earth's orbit, I dunno.
Author:  Satis [ Thu Dec 23, 2010 6:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Railgun breaks its own world record
most of space is pretty damned empty, but yea, much of earth orbit (especially low earth orbit) is full of junk. Still, with a cheap enough launch system like a railgun, we could presumably nail space junk with junk and destroy it. :twisted: Personally, I'd rather have tons of crap floating around in the solar system than in the ocean. Not that that's a fix, or anything, but at least it would reduce pollution for the time being. Ultimately, recycling is the way to go, but there's just some stuff that can't be recycled. Yet.
Author:  Rinox [ Fri Dec 31, 2010 9:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Railgun breaks its own world record
Yeah, I agree. Not sure if a railgun powerful and accurate enough to fire stuff out of earth's orbit is viable (for now) though.
Author:  Satis [ Fri Dec 31, 2010 8:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Railgun breaks its own world record
Yea, that's a lot of power. Still, the navy rail gun fired at mach 7.5 (if I'm reading that right). That's about 2500m/s. Escape velocity is about 11,000m/s. So we're not there by quite a bit, since we'd need to scale up to handle some really heavy loads to make it worthwhile, not just toss a fairly small chunk of metal like the railgun in these tests does. Still, if we were to triple the power of the current gun, we could actually shoot the current ammo out of earth orbit. That's pretty freaking crazy.
Author:  Peltz [ Thu Nov 03, 2011 8:12 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Railgun breaks its own world record
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/us-navy-rai ... 13053.html

More news on this subject.

Quote:
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Materials Testing Facility announced that it has fired its electromagnetic railgun 1000 times and reached a materials testing milestone toward the deployment on warships.


Quote:
The Navy railgun is rumored to accelerated a 7-pound projectile to a speed of 2.4 km/s or 5400 mph.....A projectile could reach a target 290 miles away in less than 6 minutes and impact it with massive force.


I'm guessing these speeds are already incomprehensible for an ordinary person. On the other hand, you can always self-destruct a missile, this baby will rip everything in its path and there's really no stopping it.
Author:  Satis [ Thu Nov 03, 2011 8:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Railgun breaks its own world record
True, but it's no different from naval guns. A battleships guns are ridiculously destructive, have a decent range (~40km), and you don't hear about a lot of oops with those. :D I wonder how accurate a rail gun would really be at a range of 290 miles. With a 6 minute flight time, I don't see how they could hit much unless it's like a non-moving bunker (and a big one). I'll bet if it ever gets fielded, the effective engagement range will be way less.
Author:  Peltz [ Fri Nov 04, 2011 1:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Railgun breaks its own world record
Not to mention the natural curve of Earth. Probably a total bitch to calculate.
Author:  Satis [ Sat Nov 05, 2011 9:20 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Railgun breaks its own world record
true... at those speeds, things get complicated. Still, Earth escape velocity is 11.2km/sec, which is still way higher than the 2.4km/sec they're currently hitting, so it should be possible to shoot things beyond the horizon. Tough stuff, though... that's a lot of air with a lot of possibility for turbulence knocking the projectile off course.
Author:  J [ Sat Nov 05, 2011 11:33 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Railgun breaks its own world record
I have done a little bit of research in the past for school since we're making kind of a rail gun with magnets.
From the movies i've seen you could use the gun to destroy big targets (like your bunker) but from what i remember, it was also possible to have projectiles that will explode or something. Don't know it that accurate anymore, but they could have like a rain/hail of small fragments, which would then be used against troops for instance. I'll see if i can find the fragment again, my memory could be blurred.

edit: found it, somewhere after 2 minutes (or just watch the whole thing, it doesn't take that long)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OqlTXwLG40
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