How fast can a railgun shoot in a vacuum?

Railguns are being researched as weapons with projectiles that do not contain explosives or propellants, but are given extremely high velocities: 2,500 m/s (8,200 ft/s) (approximately Mach 7 at sea level) or more.

Could a railgun shoot into space?

No. They would burn up in the dense atmosphere. Orbital velocity is somewhere around 17,500 mph. To get an object into space, you would need to get several times that in initial velocity.

Is a rail gun more powerful?

This means that while a normal gun might manage a projectile speed of around 2km/s, a railgun could blast out projectiles 50 per cent faster, at at least 3km/s. …

Are rail guns effective?

Railguns use magnetic fields created by high electrical currents to accelerate a projectile to Mach 6, or 5,400 miles an hour. The velocity is sufficient to give the EMRG an effective range of 110 nautical miles, or 126 miles on land.

Can you shoot a projectile into space?

Fires can’t burn in the oxygen-free vacuum of space, but guns can shoot. Modern ammunition contains its own oxidizer, a chemical that will trigger the explosion of gunpowder, and thus the firing of a bullet, wherever you are in the universe. No atmospheric oxygen required.

Do Coilguns recoil?

Therefore, for a coilgun of equivalent power to a railgun, the coilgun’s recoil will hurt more since it is at some points low and at others high… And uneven recoil hurts a lot more than steady smooth force.

How many inches of steel can a railgun penetrate?

Using electromagnetic energy, the gun can fire a shell weighing 10kg at up to 5,400mph over 100 miles – with such force and accuracy it penetrates three concrete walls or six half-inch thick steel plates.

How does a rail gun work?

Rail guns use an extremely fast moving all metal sabot projectile which travels at 5-7 times the speed of sound. Its destructive energy is in the momentum – 1/2 MV^2. It’s called a kinetic energy weapon. Th Conventional artillery munitions use either explosive or amour piercing explosive projectiles.

Can railguns fire space probes from aircraft?

Well, perhaps they can fire a space probe from a large launching aircraft at high altitude. Still they are having trouble keeping the rail gun together after each spectacular firing. Faster launches (and ones that don’t destroy a useful payload) are still waaaaay off.

What are the advantages of railguns over cannons?

Current railgun technologies necessitate a long and heavy barrel, but a railgun’s ballistics far outperform conventional cannons of equal barrel lengths. Railguns can also deliver area of effect damage by detonating a bursting charge in the projectile which unleashes a swarm of smaller projectiles over a large area.

What exactly is railgun ammo?

Railgun Ammo (or I should say projectiles) is/are nothing but slugs of metal hurled at amazing speeds.. A railgun is a kinetic weapon, meaning that it realies on kinetic energy to do its damage and not explosives.