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Public transport by Gun

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  • 04-09-2015 8:53am
    #1
    kidneyfan
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,279 ✭✭✭


    In From the Earth to the Moon Ardan, Barbican and Nicholls are BLASTED into space using a giant gun.

    Project HARP experimented with using an enormous gun to launch satellites.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_HARP
    Rocket assisted shells allow tremendous accuracy
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket-assisted_projectile


    Why not use enormous guns for Public transport?

    Example: Using shells would mean that one could travel from Mullingar to Dublin in a few minutes.

    As Hubert says in La Haine:
    C'est pas la chute, c’est la terrissage.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Haine

    From Mullingar to Dublin
    land in dublin bay

    Essentially one would have large offshore reception points. (so it wouldn't be as simple as just being fired from Mullingar to dublin one would have to be recovered from dublin bay).

    Alternatively what about drone buses?

    What's the point of the above which I admit is fanciful.

    We need blue sky thinking on infrastructure. I love trains. I love steam trains. I love buses.

    But what is the public transport of the 22nd century?

    Gun? Drone? or ...


Comments

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    #2
    loyatemu
    Registered Users Posts: 14,979 ✭✭✭✭loyatemu


    Gravity trains?


  • Options
    #3
    Sam Russell
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 19,723 Mod ✭✭✭✭Sam Russell


    When I read the title, I thought it was how we are to get on suburban trains in a few years time with all the likely overcrowding. This assumes that DU or MN are not built, and the Maynooth line is not electrified.


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    #4
    dogmatix
    Registered Users Posts: 1,404 ✭✭✭dogmatix


    From Wiki -
    Space gun with a barrel length of 1 km and a muzzle velocity of 6 km/s, as proposed by Quicklaunch (assuming constant acceleration) - 1800 G.

    So going from 1g to 1800g in a few seconds would probably turn a typical human into a short and messy gooey paste pretty quickly.

    But it could be a good way to make mince meat and then transport it - all at the same time. Economical and speedy!

    I always felt the space guns used in Verne and HG Wells would never have been a really practical way of transporting live subjects.

    Drone buses could work - they already have drone light rail in Seattle and Vancouver.


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