Launching Ramp

Thanks for the URL's on big guns.None have come close to orbit, and if they have put projectiles in space or not depends on one's definition. Most folks don't say 40 km up is space. Still that is impressive, but hardly in orbit sincethe maximum altitude which occurs with the minimum velocity. Newton's work was done before, and in fact made, the kinetic theory of gases possible, so one can not claim he was really thinking about (or in a position to understand the issues of) putting a satellite in orbit about Earth with a cannon, which one of the sites acknowledges. One can get higher gas velocity by going to lower mass molecules. Hydrogen, a diatomic molecule with a mass of 2 atomic mass units, being the fastest. Compared to air, with an average molecular mass of about 29, hydrogen would have velocities of about 4 times faster at the same temperature. Helium is the next fastest, and the faster velocity of Helium at room temperature (which gives a higher speed of sound in it)is what makes voices high pitched with helium in the voice box. So for highprojectile velocity, I suppose electrically heated hydrogen would be the best bet. I am sure some folks have worked on this, but I don't have any leads. Sincerely, Jay Huebner

Some relivant pages on ramps/guns are:
http://www.astronautix.com/lvfam/gunnched.htm
http://world.std.com/~jlr/doom/bull.htm
In 1990 Iraq had "Project Babylon", led byGerald Bull, which was actively constucting a gun based launcher.http://www.vectorsite.net/tarokt3.html