# Using Large Cannons to launch Spaceships ?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-large-cannons-to-launch-spaceships/152726>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 4, 2003, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-large-cannons-to-launch-spaceships/152726 "2003-02-04T17:32:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-large-cannons-to-launch-spaceships/152726/21 "2003-02-04T22:05:35Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by scotth \*  
> \*\*  
> …Of course, the Earth spins. This would leave the launching point someplace else when the object comes back through… \*\*

Hey, now! Every picture I’ve ever seen has the big mountain with the cannon up at the North Pole, so it isn’t going to rotate anywhere!

But that gives me an idea. I fire the body horizontally fast enough to have an orbital period of 11 hours 58 minutes, or so, and when the body comes around it reloads the gun!

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**Author:** ![Sock\_Munkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Sock\_Munkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sock_Munkey)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-large-cannons-to-launch-spaceships/152726/22 "2003-02-05T05:30:24Z")

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The best site for an EM launcher would be in the Andes at the equator, the air on the leeward side is nice and dry.  
Anyhow, I think the most practical space plane setup would be as follows:

- EM launcher to get that sucker moving fast enough for the air-breathing ramjets kick in.
- Ramjets fire untill the air gets to thin.
- Rocketskicks in and takes space plane into orbit.

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**Author:** ![Sock\_Munkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Sock\_Munkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sock_Munkey)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-large-cannons-to-launch-spaceships/152726/23 "2003-02-05T05:32:36Z")

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I should never type when I’m sleepy…

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**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-large-cannons-to-launch-spaceships/152726/24 "2003-02-05T06:31:09Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Scuba\_Ben \*  
> \*\*I remember seeing a TV special a few years ago, probably on Discovery Channel, about some rocket scientist in the 30s (?? 50s??) had experimented with cannon-launched craft. He was considered “on the fringe” and his work was never followed up. Anybody recall this show?
> 
> Also, Jules Verne described a cannon-launched, manned ship in his famous novel, _From the Earth to the Moon_. Checking [www.literature.com](http://www.literature.com), he used a nine-foot-wide hollow ball, with an aluminum shell, and he located his cannon near Tampa, FL – both not too different from modern crafts’ aluminum hulls and KSC at Cape Canaveral. \*\*

You’re probably thinking of [Gerald Bull](http://world.std.com/~jlr/doom/bull.htm), who managed to work out the design problems with a “supergun” to the point where Mossad felt it necessary to assassinate him. (Seems he’d been working for Iraq to figure out how to get the idea to work.)

One _might_ be able to use an electromagnetic catapult to send people and things into orbit, but IIRC, it’d take a hell of a lot of juice, and it’d scramble the on-board electronics something fierce.

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