http://nextbigfuture.disqus.com/enThu, 18 Jun 2009 05:42:28 -0000http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/06/blast-wave-accelerator-space-launch.html#comment-11079735<p>I remember the story of Gerald Vincent Bull who designed orbital cannons and almost got the funding (from Iraq) to complete it.<br><a href="http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/SGbull.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" title="http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/SGbull.htm">http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.g...</a></p>cybrbeastThu, 18 Jun 2009 05:42:28 -0000http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/06/blast-wave-accelerator-space-launch.html#comment-11065442<p>Unmanned launch capability is nice. The military applications are interesting as well.</p><p>Could this thing be used as a "poor man's" nuclear missle? Perhaps it could take out aircraft carriers from a distance, say 3000 kilometers. This could be a relatively low cost defense system for a "seasteading" ocean city-state. It would be dual use in that it would normally pay for itself launching commercial payloads into space (from an equatorial launch location, of course). Yeah, the dual use capability makes it very practical, economically speaking.</p>kurt9Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:38:34 -0000