Very first sci-fi film ever made after a story by Jules Verne. They use a giant cannon to launch someone into lunar orbit and back. Pure fiction but touched upon basics of actual science, and was definitely the inspiration for actual space exploration.
There is an episode about this movie in Tom Hanks’s „From the Earth to the Moon” which I can’t recommend enough.
This scene always moves me:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=XA9e1LTFZHo
The company Spin Launch is doing someone not that dissimilar to this, except they’re not using explosives to shoot it up, but are accelerating it in a circle until it gets the right speed
. The first subterranean test was the nuclear device known as Pascal A, which was lowered down a 500 ft (150 m) borehole. However, the detonated yield turned out to be 50,000 times greater than anticipated, creating a jet of fire that shot hundreds of meters into the sky.[8] During the Pascal-B nuclear test of August 1957,[8][9] a 900-kilogram (2,000 lb) iron lid was welded over the borehole to contain the nuclear blast, despite Brownlee predicting that it would not work.[8] When Pascal-B was detonated, the blast went straight up the test shaft, launching the cap into the atmosphere. The plate was never found.[10] Scientists believe compression heating caused the cap to vaporize as it sped through the atmosphere.[8] A high-speed camera, which took one frame per millisecond, was focused on the borehole because studying the velocity of the plate was deemed scientifically interesting.[8] After the detonation, the plate appeared in only one frame.
A more practical method would be some type of mass accelerator. A canon implies very fast acceleration. We can shoot garbage in to orbit like that. But if we are puting delicate stuff in orbit, we need to spread the acceleration over time.
With a cannon you can’t go much faster than 4-5x the speed of sound, unless the space in between the payload and the explosive is filled with a lighter than air gas like helium. Like in a light gas gun. But even then the acceleration needs to be extremely high since the only thrust the payload gets is at the beginning. So it would destroy most things especially squishy humans. A rail gun would be a better solution and is in theory possible, since it can accelerate the entire length of the rail. If you just make it long enough you can accelerate to any speed in a vacuum at survivable G-forces. But the end of the barrel needs to be in space in a vacuum as well other wise the payload will explode the moment it exists the barrel and hits atmosphere if it’s going fast enough to reach the moon. Though the space craft still needs it’s own thrust system to decelerate, otherwise it will just loop around the moon and fall back to Earth.
As long as the force of the launch is enough to reach escape velocity, I guess so. But since the acceleration would be immediate, I guess a human occupant wouldn’t be able to survive the immense g-force generated.
If a billionaire thought it would be a good idea to cheap out on submarine contrusction. We might get lucky with the current crop of billionaires thinking being shot out of a massive gun is a good idea.
Hilariously, it’s theoretically practical for lobbing “durable” loads to space.
The US already shot a shell high into the atmosphere with a gas gun. Some startups are pursuing the “orbital gun” idea now, to decent success on shoestring budgets.
It’s actually a more interesting solution for doing things the other way around: have some kind of mining operation on the moon and use a “cannon” (most likely a rail gun) to accelerate payloads from the surface of the moon into Earth orbit or even down to the surface.
But yeah, even that one wouldn’t be for squishy payloads such as people.
PS: That said somebody else is pointing out existing experiments were the object is accelerated around and around by a mass acellerator and then release at the appropriate speed, which might work for human payloads.
The escape velocity of the moon is 8,600 kilometers per hour. That would be a big, very expensive gun to set up and achieve that velocity. But yeah, if the “shells” and guidance could be manufactured on the moon, it would be an efficient system once its operational.
Again, the emphasis is that everything is several orders of magitude cheaper if you do it on Earth, especially if its something with a lot of mass. For the price of a single lunar space gun, one could build many enormous orbital guns on Earth.
The orbit is a great place for all celebrities but they can skip the capsules.
This is brilliant, where this from?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Trip_to_the_Moon
Very first sci-fi film ever made after a story by Jules Verne. They use a giant cannon to launch someone into lunar orbit and back. Pure fiction but touched upon basics of actual science, and was definitely the inspiration for actual space exploration.
The more famous and recognizable image from that film is the projectile in the moon’s face.
There is an episode about this movie in Tom Hanks’s „From the Earth to the Moon” which I can’t recommend enough. This scene always moves me: https://youtube.com/watch?v=XA9e1LTFZHo
Would it theoretically be possible to send payload this way to the moon? EDIT: amazing answers, thank you
The company Spin Launch is doing someone not that dissimilar to this, except they’re not using explosives to shoot it up, but are accelerating it in a circle until it gets the right speed
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Plumbbob
The only time we might have sent an object in orbit via an explosion
. The first subterranean test was the nuclear device known as Pascal A, which was lowered down a 500 ft (150 m) borehole. However, the detonated yield turned out to be 50,000 times greater than anticipated, creating a jet of fire that shot hundreds of meters into the sky.[8] During the Pascal-B nuclear test of August 1957,[8][9] a 900-kilogram (2,000 lb) iron lid was welded over the borehole to contain the nuclear blast, despite Brownlee predicting that it would not work.[8] When Pascal-B was detonated, the blast went straight up the test shaft, launching the cap into the atmosphere. The plate was never found.[10] Scientists believe compression heating caused the cap to vaporize as it sped through the atmosphere.[8] A high-speed camera, which took one frame per millisecond, was focused on the borehole because studying the velocity of the plate was deemed scientifically interesting.[8] After the detonation, the plate appeared in only one frame.
This shit is so fucking cool lol
Solar orbit lmao
A more practical method would be some type of mass accelerator. A canon implies very fast acceleration. We can shoot garbage in to orbit like that. But if we are puting delicate stuff in orbit, we need to spread the acceleration over time.
With a cannon you can’t go much faster than 4-5x the speed of sound, unless the space in between the payload and the explosive is filled with a lighter than air gas like helium. Like in a light gas gun. But even then the acceleration needs to be extremely high since the only thrust the payload gets is at the beginning. So it would destroy most things especially squishy humans. A rail gun would be a better solution and is in theory possible, since it can accelerate the entire length of the rail. If you just make it long enough you can accelerate to any speed in a vacuum at survivable G-forces. But the end of the barrel needs to be in space in a vacuum as well other wise the payload will explode the moment it exists the barrel and hits atmosphere if it’s going fast enough to reach the moon. Though the space craft still needs it’s own thrust system to decelerate, otherwise it will just loop around the moon and fall back to Earth.
As long as the force of the launch is enough to reach escape velocity, I guess so. But since the acceleration would be immediate, I guess a human occupant wouldn’t be able to survive the immense g-force generated.
So what you are saying is a bunch of billionaires would be “human paste” from this method?
I’m seeing no downside here…
If a billionaire thought it would be a good idea to cheap out on submarine contrusction. We might get lucky with the current crop of billionaires thinking being shot out of a massive gun is a good idea.
Escape velocity including atmospheric drag!
Hilariously, it’s theoretically practical for lobbing “durable” loads to space.
The US already shot a shell high into the atmosphere with a gas gun. Some startups are pursuing the “orbital gun” idea now, to decent success on shoestring budgets.
It’s actually a more interesting solution for doing things the other way around: have some kind of mining operation on the moon and use a “cannon” (most likely a rail gun) to accelerate payloads from the surface of the moon into Earth orbit or even down to the surface.
But yeah, even that one wouldn’t be for squishy payloads such as people.
PS: That said somebody else is pointing out existing experiments were the object is accelerated around and around by a mass acellerator and then release at the appropriate speed, which might work for human payloads.
The escape velocity of the moon is 8,600 kilometers per hour. That would be a big, very expensive gun to set up and achieve that velocity. But yeah, if the “shells” and guidance could be manufactured on the moon, it would be an efficient system once its operational.
Again, the emphasis is that everything is several orders of magitude cheaper if you do it on Earth, especially if its something with a lot of mass. For the price of a single lunar space gun, one could build many enormous orbital guns on Earth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Trip_to_the_Moon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Trip_to_the_Moon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Trip_to_the_Moon