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All gun-style launches have the problem that they have to do the entire acceleration in a very short amount of time, which means very high g-forces. Also happens at the ground, so needs even more speed to compensate for loss in the atmosphere. For small & robust payloads it might be an option, but for large satellites? E.g. Gerald Bull did high-atmosphere studies using payloads fired from converted artillery guns in the 60s.

Not sure if railguns in particular add much over chemical guns that justifies the complexity.




I knew a futurist who proposed using a railgun on Kilimanjaro as stage 1 of a rocket launch system. A lot of fuel is burned just trying to shove a lot of fuel through the lower atmosphere.

But as you say, a human-rated railgun has a much lower acceleration. And there's the problem of what happens when you hit the atmosphere at the end of the gun...


I have read of very long railgun designs (on the order of many kilometers), where the acceleration should be more gradual.


Aka a very fast maglev train.




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