Ashlee Vance talks with LongShot about a space gun that could launch vehicles into orbit. The design uses a 10 km tube with four staged gas injections to accelerate a vehicle, distributing forces that would otherwise be lethal. They're starting with a 65-foot prototype and need a 60-80 km safety zone downrange.
Like 99% of the velocity is invested on the ground.
Yeah.
Our approach is you've got this super, super, super long tube. Instead of doing one super heavy injection of gas, this gun has four. And the way that this works is the vehicle has a very long wedge sticking off of the rear of it, and gas is blowing in from the sides. And right as this thing is passing, you're squeezing. And this one is how long? This is—
This is like 65 feet. 65 feet, and the final might be like 10 kilometers.
10 kilometers.
This shipping container version of the space gun is just the start. LongShot has plans for medium, large, and totally nuts versions in the future. And it's in the process of raising money to fund all this right now.
Okay, possibly quite a dumb question, but obviously this— How do you go to space?
Yeah. Even in the rendering I saw on the wall, I don't see like a big curve.
So the thing is, if you do a curve, If you're going at orbital velocities and then you start doing this, show me how much force you're actually putting on that track. The sudden G-forces and the jerk from that maneuver is going to be horrific. And the more massive the vehicle is, like, you just might not be able to build a structure that can take the shock of that. Also, cool thing, despite what some people say, the Earth is curved. And so it's dropping away from you and you're going up. Okay, so this thing is 10 kilometers long.
10 kilometers long, flat on the ground. The projectile comes out the end. Yep. And then how far is it traveling?
You probably want to make sure everything is clear downrange for something on the order of 60 to 80 kilometers, um, and then you're going to be out of the atmosphere in something like 120—
