A new space race with railguns would be the fucking coolest thing ever
China Uses Giant Rail Gun to Shoot a Smart Bomb Nine Miles Into the Sky
Submitted 5 months ago by 0nekoneko7@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world 5 months ago
4am@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Spinlaunch has been trying to make a catapult-to-orbit out of a miniature hyperloop. Actually not as dumb as I made it sound (but it does have its own issues)
School_Lunch@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I wonder how much more energy it took to accomplish that compared to just shooting a rocket. Last I had heard railguns weren’t really feasible because of the absurd amount of energy they would require even with perfect efficiency.
UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee 5 months ago
It’s not the absurd amount of energy that’s the problem. It’s the absurd amount of energy that has to be STORED AND RELEASED within a fraction of a second in a controlled fashion.
If you wanna go electric, you would need a stupendous amount of capacitors and a gun that won’t get destroyed due to the immense energy release.
If u wanna go chemical (like an actual gun), u r faced with the same problem of the gun exploding.
The only approach that MIGHT work is the Spinlaunch thing, where u essentially store this energy as angular momentum in a THICCC carbon fibre rod. Spinlaunch is still yet to demonstrate anything remarkable, so there’s that.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I’m no expert, but I could imagine rail-guns would be a huge advantage on nuclear powered vessels. For one the ammo doesn’t explode if hit by enemy fire.
EvilBit@lemmy.world 5 months ago
They might also have a much smaller launch signature, meaning harder response to a first-strike launch. But I’m not a physicist or nuclear deterrence expert or anything.
tsonfeir@lemm.ee 5 months ago
If it’s so smart, why can’t it launch itself? 🤓
Zorque@kbin.social 5 months ago
Its so smart it gets something else to do all the work for it.
norbert@kbin.social 5 months ago
It's just a manager bomb, it failed into that position.
SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world 5 months ago
It might be a mistake to allow AI’s control of weapon systems.
NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Poor Chinese. They have yet to learn so much from Elon (hint: declare everything a success. NO. MATTER. WHAT.)
Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.world 5 months ago
One of my favorite Star Trek quotes of all time: “If the invasion had been considered a defeat Gowron would’ve been assassinated by now. He simply declared victory, and went home.”