Nuclear Shotgun

[discovery1]

Nuclearspace.com original author known as GoogleNaut

No one mentioned a semi-static defense of a planet.

An interesting idea cropped up during the height of the cold war, and it really illustrates the Brute-Force approach to missile defense.

It was once proposed to build an array of 'space-cannons' not unlike the Jules Verne concept in his novel From the Earth to the Moon.

Take a cylindrical concrete shaft, perhaps lined with steel to make it smooth, say ten meters wide by two hundred to three hundred meters deep. At the bottom of the shaft place a small thermonuclear explosive, say 350 kiloton yield. Around the bomb pack 5000 tons of wet sand. This is the propellant. Now place a reinforced concrete plug, ten meters wide, and say seven meters thick, into the shaft so that it is snug but not tight. This is the wadding. Now pack hundreds of ceramic coated, one meter cast-iron balls, separated by more sand (dry this time.) This is the shot. Now cap off the shaft with something light and cheap, say fiberglass or plywood. (Could even be galvanized roofing tin, or maybe a shingled roof, making it look like a house)

If you've done your homework, and build many of these things at different angles into various mountains, then an appreciable part of the sky could be covered. By properly spacing the shotguns, you could even get multiple shots at a particular section of sky.

Now when the enemy comes, and drops MIRVs on your heads or is silly enough to come over your pole with his Star Destroyer, you can defiantly shake your fist at the sky and shout Eat hot lead, Darth Vader

Firing the shotguns will result in a narrow cone of hypervelocity shot. Muzzle velocity ought to be at least 20 kilometers per second. Possibly much higher than that. Each shot gun should throw a couple of thousand tons of big buckshot in the bad guys face. I would imagine that a Star Destroyer caught in such an onslought ought to come apart more spectacularly than clay pidgeons at a Skeet range. However, because of the high velocity of the projectiles, they will leave your planet pretty quick. You'd have to use a lot more shot and wadding to get them into a ballistic trajectory so their 'hang time' will make them a real navigation hazard for ships on an intercept trajectory. Using a variable yield bomb could probably accomplish this.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention a warning about operating such weapons. Don't breath the propellant smoke from this gun, unless you don't mind a good glow. The EPA is liable to not license such hellishly polluting projectile weapons. [They're NO FUN]
____

So, what do you think if this

[Papewaio]

And if the gun jams?

[solypsist]

nevermind. misread the thread.

[Spino]

Uh, so in order to take out thousands of incoming ICBMs and MIRV warheads you have to blanket the space above your nation and select areas of the countryside with countless 350KT yield nuclear shotguns?? 350KT yields?? Even if all the shotguns hit their mark you will effectively irradiate a disturbingly large area of your own country, not to mention the numerous side effects all the activated shotguns will have on anything in orbit (the EMP pulses alone should take out every single satellite in the vicinity) and the upper atmosphere. This is like using a flamethrower to take out a swarm of bees that have invaded your house. Sure you might get them all but at what cost?

It's official, the original author is insane...

[Axeknight]

Quote[/b] (Spino @ June 29 2004,15:48)]Even if all the shotguns hit their mark you will effectively irradiate a disturbingly large area of your own country, not to mention the numerous side effects all the activated shotguns will have on anything in orbit (the EMP pulses alone should take out every single satellite in the vicinity) and the upper atmosphere.

But you forget the most important reason for having these:

How freakin' cool would it be to shoot one?

[Ronin]

Spino is right....even if this is sucessfull in stoping the other guys mirvs...you have just detonated a nuclear device in your own soil....this is gonna have consequences as i´m sure i don´t have to explain.

[makkyo]

Quote[/b] (Axeknight @ June 29 2004,10:54)]How freakin' cool would it be to shoot one?

Extremely Though I can imagne that the kick from such a shot gun could crack the earth's crust, possibly unleashing a tide of moten rock than would have disasterous effects. We can test it on Mars just to be shure it works.

[BDC]

Be better to just have lots and lots of fusion reactors and use them to use a particle-accelerator type thing to accelerate a small magnetic lump (maybe the size of a bullet?) until it is going most the speed of light. Then crack planets with it.

[RisingSun]

Now that sounds disturbingly fun.

Kind of like the Flight of the Valkyries scene in Apocalypse Now.

[dessa14]

im guessing this gun of american design.
this would rather simply be solved by forcing someone else to have it on their ground.
thanks, dessa

[BDC]

Quote[/b] (dessa14 @ June 30 2004,13:55)]im guessing this gun of american design.
this would rather simply be solved by forcing someone else to have it on their ground.
thanks, dessa

Probably in France.

[Axeknight]

Quote[/b] (BDC @ June 29 2004,17:45)]Be better to just have lots and lots of fusion reactors and use them to use a particle-accelerator type thing to accelerate a small magnetic lump (maybe the size of a bullet?) until it is going most the speed of light. Then crack planets with it.

Three words: I want one

[BDC]

Quote[/b] (Axeknight @ June 30 2004,21:27)]

Quote[/b] (BDC @ June 29 2004,17:45)]Be better to just have lots and lots of fusion reactors and use them to use a particle-accelerator type thing to accelerate a small magnetic lump (maybe the size of a bullet?) until it is going most the speed of light. Then crack planets with it.

Three words: I want one

Yeah. And for added amusement you could accelerate a mongoose or something and use that to break apart planets.

[Leet Eriksson]

what would happen if they tested it on the moon

[discovery1]

Quote[/b] (faisal @ June 30 2004,19:39)]what would happen if they tested it on the moon

You'd get a bunch of iron spheres and stuff orbiting the sun in an odd orbit. Not much more. The moon was hit by a much larger force back in the 1000s(Really, a Canterbury monk recorded what appears to be a asteroid hitting the moon, and and the fact that the moon is slightly vibrating like a giant bell gives credence to this hypothesis). Oh, and a mere 350 kt bomb only a few hundred meters down would not crack the kilometer think crust, just so you known. Would produce enough lovely fall out though, at least in this configuration. And if you think this is crazy, you should hear about Project Orion. It was a proposed spaceship that would have weighed 10000 tons+ and would have been propelled by exploding nuclear weapons. It was meant to be ground launched.