Research is actively being conducted on space-gun technology for orbital launch
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Reference sources and NASA-supported research document investigations into modifying electromagnetic railgun technology to provide horizontal launch assist for space vehicles.
Performance for an Electromagnetic Gun-Launched Projectile (PDF) (Report). The U.S. Army Research Laboratory. ADA326880. Archived from the original on 25 April
A railgun or rail gun, sometimes referred to as a rail cannon, is a linear motor device, typically designed as a ranged weapon, that uses electromagnetic force to launch high-velocity projectiles. The projectile normally does not contain explosives, instead relying on the projectile's high kinetic energy to inflict damage. The railgun uses a pair of parallel rail-shaped conductors (simply called r
Full-scale models have been built and fired, including a 90 mm (3.5 in) bore, 9 megajoule kinetic energy gun developed by the US DARPA. Rail and insulator wear problems still need to be solved before railguns can start to replace conventional weapons. Probably the oldest consistently successful system was built by the UK's Defence Research Agency at Dundrennan Range in Kirkcudbright, Scotland. This system was established in 1993 and has been operated for over 10 years.
China is now one of the major players in electromagnetic launchers; in 2012 it hosted the 16th International Symposium on Electromagnetic Launch Technology (EML 2012) at Beijing. Satellite imagery in late 2010 suggested that tests were being conducted at an armor and artillery range near Baotou, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
While military research into railgun technology in the United States ensued continuously in the following decades, the direction and focus that it took shifted dramatically with major changes in funding levels and the needs of different government agencies. In 1984, the formation of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization caused research goals to shift toward establishing a constellation of satellites to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles. As a result, the U.S. military focused on developing small guided projectiles that could withstand the high-G launch from ultra-high velocity plasma armature railguns.
A 32-megajoule earlier railgun of the same design resides at the Dundrennan Weapons Testing Centre in the United Kingdom. Low power, small scale railguns have also made popular college and amateur projects. Several amateurs actively carry out research on railguns. == Design == === Theory === A railgun consists of two parallel metal rails (hence the name). At one end, these rails are connected to an electrical power supply, to form the breech end of the gun. Then, if a conductive projectile is inserted between the rails (e.g., by insertion into the breech), it completes the circuit.
Space applications of this technology would likely involve specially formed electromagnetic coils and superconducting magnets. Composite materials would likely be used for this application. For space launches from Earth, relatively short acceleration distances (less than a few km) would require very strong acceleration forces, higher than humans can tolerate. Other designs include a longer helical (spiral) track, or a large ring design whereby a space vehicle would circle the ring numerous times, gradually gaining speed, before being released into a launch corridor leading skyward.
Nevertheless, if technically feasible and cost effective to build, imparting hyper-velocity escape velocity to a projectile launching at sea level, where the atmosphere is the most dense, may result in much of the launch velocity being lost to aerodynamic drag. In addition, the projectile might still require some form of on-board guidance and control to realize a useful orbital insertion angle that may not be achievable based simply on the launcher's upward elevation angle relative to the surface of the earth, (see practical considerations of escape velocity). In 2003, Ian McNab outlined a plan to turn this idea into a realized technology.
China is now one of the major players in electromagnetic launchers; in 2012 it hosted the 16th International Symposium on Electromagnetic Launch Technology (EML 2012) at Beijing. Satellite imagery in late 2010 suggested that tests were being conducted at an armor and artillery range near Baotou, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Ground combat forces, however, may find that co-locating an additional electrical power supply on the battlefield for every gun system may not be as weight and space efficient, survivable, or convenient a source of immediate projectile-launching energy as conventional propellants, which are manufactured safely behind the lines and delivered to the weapon, pre-packaged, through a robust and dispersed logistics system. In July 2017, Defensetech reported that the Navy wished to push the Office of Naval Research's prototype railgun from a science experiment into useful weapon territory.
ARL was responsible for assessing the performance of the launcher, which was tested at the ARL Transonic Experimental Facility in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. The U.S. Army Research Laboratory also monitored electromagnetic and electrothermal gun technology development at the Institute for Advanced Technology (IAT) at the University of Texas at Austin, one of five university and industry laboratories that ARL federated to procure technical support. It housed the two electromagnetic launchers, the Leander OAT and the AugOAT, as well as the Medium Caliber Launcher.
In March 2018, it was reported that China confirmed it had begun testing its electromagnetic rail gun at sea. === India === In November 2017, India's Defence Research and Development Organisation carried out a successful test of a 12 mm square bore electromagnetic railgun. Tests of a 30 mm version are planned to be conducted. India aims to fire a one kilogram projectile at a velocity of more than 2,000 m/s using a capacitor bank of 10 megajoules. Electromagnetic guns and directed energy weapons are among the systems which the Indian Navy aims to acquire in its modernisation plan up to 2030.
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---The Feasibility of Railgun Horizontal-Launch Assist Robert C. Youngquist l, Stanley O. Starr l , Senior Member, IEEE, and Robert B., Cox2 IMailstop NE-L5, KSC Applied Physics Lab, Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899 USA 2Artic Slope Regional Corporation, MS ASRC-15, Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899 USA Railguns typically operate for a few milliseconds, supplying thousands of G's of acceleration to a small projectile, resulting in exceptional speeds.
This paper argues through analysis and experiment, that this "standard" technology can be modified to provide 2-3 G's acceleration to a relatively heavy launch vehicle for a time period exceeding several seconds, yielding a launch assist velocity in excess of Mach 1. The key insight here is that an efficient rail gun operates at a speed approximately given by the system resistance divided by the inductance gradient, which can be tailored because recent MOSFET and ultra-capacitor advances allow very low total power supply resistances with high capacitance and augmented railgun architectures provide a scalable inductance gradient.
Yet, to date, most studies and prototype launch assist systems have proposed using linear synchronous motors [2] or linear induction motors [6] neither of which, to this author's knowledge, have been demonstrated at speeds above Mach 1. An alternative motor technology that might provide a supersonic launch assist capability is a modified railgun system. Railguns have routinely
The capacitor banks can be rearranged to yield higher voltages in order to overcome the emf and lower time constants to correspond to the higher velocity of the sled . Microprocessor control of the MOSFETs should provide better control of the acceleration proftle helping to minimize stress on the airframe . v. CONCLUSIONS This work has demonstrated that constructing a launch assist system using railgun technology is possible . There are significant design issues still to be addressed , but the basic architecture described above should be able to accelerate a full 5 sized vehicle at 3 G's.
In addition, MOSFET technology is advancing with new ultra-low impedance components becoming available monthly . Also , ultra-capacitor research is progressing [13], [14] with claims made of lab achievements 100 times higher than the Maxwell capacitors used in this project. With these advances , low voltage railgun, or Lorentz force, type linear motors may find applications in numerous areas , including that of hypersonic vehicle launch assist. ACKNOWLEDGMENT We would like to thank Curtis Ihlefeld and Stephen . Simmons for helpful discussions on the power supply design. This work was supported in part by the NASA Innovative Partnerships Program .
REFERENCES [I] WA Jacobs , "Magnetic launch Assist-NASA ' s Vision for the Future, " IEEE Trans. Magn., Vol. 37, pp. 55-57, Jan. 2001. [2] J. Dill and D. Meeker, Maglifte r Tradeoff Study and Subscale System Demonstrations , Foster-Miller report for NASA contract NAS8-98033 , NAS-98069- 1362, Dec. 2000 . [3) J.e. Mankins , WJ .D.Escher , J. Howell, and J.R. Olds, "Combined AirbeathingIRocket Powered Highly Reusable Space transport Flight Profiles :A Progress Report ," AlAA 7U, International Spaceplanes and Hypersonic Systems & Technology Conference , Nov. 1996. [4] KJ.Kloesel , J.B. Pickrel, E.L. Sayles, M. Wright, D. Marriott , L. Holland , S.
Kuznetsov , First Stage of a Highly Reliable Reusable Launch System , AlAA Space 2009 Conference and Exposition , Sept. 2009 . [5] Personnel communications with NASA hypersonic aircraft experts. [6] B.V. Jayawant , J.D. Edwards , L.S. Wickramaratne , W.R.e. Dawson, and T.e. Yang, "Electromagnetic Launch Assistance for Space Vehicles ," lET Sci. Meas. Techno/., Vol. 2. No.1, pp. 42-52, Jan. 2008 . [7] Ian R. McNab, "Progress on Hypervelocity Railgun Research for Launch to Space," 2008 14U, Symposium on Electromagnetic launch Technology , pp. 1-8, June 2008 . [8] Thomas G. Engel, Michael J. Veracka , and Jesse M.
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