Re: Weapon Naming Madness!

Oerjan Ohlson wrote:
><A lot of interesting stuff>

>In the same collection of symposium proceedings I mentioned above, DERA
>staff (Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, IIRC the British Army
>research organisation) claim that their test railgun consistently hit
>targets at a range of 2 km with APFSDS projectiles. I didn't write down
>the Mass of the projectiles, but they seem to be similar in size to
>those fired by today's MBTs. Muzzle velocities were between 1300 and
>2000 m/s, but it should be possible to reach much higher velocities
>provided we manage to build projectiles that don't melt in flight. I've
>seen theoretical figures of 6-8000 m/s in other papers.

The only Railgun I was introduced to was my dad's homebuilt. It did not
use
the plasma to propell a slug, but used the plasma as a projectile
itself. I
haven't really had the time to look in on the latest technology in
Railguns.
In effect I knew of using a powder slugthrower without the slug.

>This is pure fantasy. Railguns - what you call "Gauss" guns ....

I do not claim Railguns and Gauss guns are the same thing. With what I
have
recently learned Railguns use metal plasma as a propellent, and
accelerate
the already expanding plasma with the magnetic field. Gauss guns use the
magnetic field itself as a propellent, theoretically running much cooler
than an equavelent Railgun, but as you said there isn't much out on
working
Gauss guns (what you called Coilguns). Some space exploration scientists
and
companies (which ones at the moment excape me, try any of the major
colleges, especially in california, or Florida Institute of Technology,
right next door to Cape Kennedy Space Center) theorise using a gauss
mass
driver to propell cargo containers made from a certain composition from
a
low G planetary body (Luna, the asteroids or the martian moons), the
recieving craft can simply drop the empty containers from orbit. This is
typicaly used in extraterrestrial mining concepts to avoid trying to
ship or
generate masses of engine propellent. I haven't had the time to look in
on
this recently, and am not entirely sure what new has come of it if
anything.
It may have been usurped by classified projects looking into making a
weapon
out of it, I wouldn't be suprised ;-)

Jim Whitehead