http://www.onr.navy.mil/media/releases/image_gallery/default.asp?categoryID=9

2/1/2008 6:25:14 PM

haha, they told me in rotc that railguns suck--but then i was in af

2/1/2008 6:27:49 PM

that first pic is cool

2/1/2008 6:30:43 PM

Yeah that makes sense- I mean from an air force perspective they're wholly unworkable. They have always preferred lasers as their magical futuristic weapon of choice anyways. Lasers might not be able to deliver the kind of energy that a rail gun can or as cheaply (in theory- ammo costs) but they wouldn't disintegrate any plane they were fired from either.

2/1/2008 6:31:13 PM

but speaking of kinetic energy weapons, i thought this was an interesting idea:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment

basically, artificial asteroids that can rain down on command...

[Edited on February 1, 2008 at 6:38 PM. Reason : the wikipedia article is better]

2/1/2008 6:37:08 PM

Weaponizing space when your species only lives on one planet=extinction. The Chinese anti-satellite weapons test demonstrated the same truth about space warfare that convinced the US to halt anti-satellite weapons tests in 1985 (after only 1 test.) The Chinese weapons test forced several commercial satellites to adjust course because of the massive debris cloud (40,000+ objects sufficient to kill satellites.) Think it represented over a 25% increase in total in orbital debris- and just from a test.

Even a brief conflict involving spaced based weapons platforms being attacked by anti-satellite weaponry could deny the use or space (commercial, military, and scientific) for decades or even centuries.

2/1/2008 6:55:06 PM

I wonder how different the muzzle sound is.

2/1/2008 6:57:19 PM

Probably sonic boom like.

2/1/2008 7:00:22 PM

yeah, the chinese thing was pretty goddamn stupid, but i'm sure the plans are there even if the satellites aren't in orbit

2/1/2008 7:01:16 PM

Oh yeah the US still has space weapons development programs. Nobody, in the US at least, has felt like doing anything as dumb as actually launching them. Particularly when we are already the nation that would suffer most from being denied access to space, why start an arms race for weapons whose principle targets would be our and our allies' sophisticated space based resources. That would be like a vampire building and showing off a really powerful and portable hand held sunlamp.

[Edited on February 1, 2008 at 7:07 PM. Reason : ]

2/1/2008 7:07:13 PM

heh, it makes you wonder about the chinese though--testing anti-satellite missiles when they don't even have an aircraft carrier

2/1/2008 7:12:51 PM

Yeah that smacked of posturing. I would have expected it if the Taiwan issue had been brought up recently, but meh. It does send a message though that our extremely important, advanced, and expensive satellite network is vulnerable. Maybe that was their point, but I'm not sure if anything specific provoked them. It might be that their move to develop and test that weapon was provoked years ago when the US resumed testing anti ballistic missile weapons.

2/1/2008 7:17:36 PM

genuinely interesting discussion for chit chat, bttt

2/3/2008 12:04:40 AM

there was a project similar to kinetic bombardment that evolved out of the star wars program, the idea being to use smaller satellites to intercept ballistic missiles. i think it was defunded at one point, but it may have been resurrected because of bush's missile defense push

2/3/2008 12:19:22 AM

Could have sworn I posted this... but I guess I'm losing my mind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZourRsUsnho

yutube video of the actual record breaking test.

2/3/2008 12:33:06 AM

i figured it would use a sabot

2/3/2008 12:40:25 AM

Yeah, espescially given the current through the projectice. It makes sense to have a jacket made of a different conductive material to possibly:

Ensure conduction during firing while allowing the projectile to be made into a more aerodynamic shape.
Cunduct most of the current- therefore avoiding the melting projectile seen in things like the PowerLabs railgun.
Allow you to use less conductive (would heat more at needed currents obviously) but denser and possibly more desirable materials (for penetration)
To protect the rail- softer metal possibly coated with I don't know what.

Or whatever other reasons.

2/3/2008 1:08:27 AM