From: nuny@bid.nes   
      
   On Saturday, March 4, 2017 at 3:26:18 PM UTC-8, MrAnderson wrote:   
   > So, I just need to know if it is possible to launch human from cannon that   
   works   
   > like V3 German cannon, just much longer to make acceleration smaller. Would   
   > there be need to accelerate first in gun and then the bullet with people by   
   > onboard rockets? What would be the g-forces?   
      
     The problem with shooting people out of cannons is that the energy used to   
   provide acceleration is delivered in a very short time, meaning thousands of   
   gees at least. That turns people into chunky salsa, but you knew that.   
      
     I can't find tables online at the moment but I recall that humans can   
   survive maybe 75 gee shocks without fatality more than half the time,   
   depending on how healthy they are and how they arrange their body to take it.   
      
     Fighter pilots are trained to execute up to 5 gee maneuvers for no more than   
   one second to prevent blackout. People doing astronaut training have handled   
   up to 17 gees for minutes at a time but they were wearing special garments to   
   keep their blood    
   from pooling.   
      
     Assume your passengers are not highly trained nor selected for health. That   
   means no more than say 5 gees at any one time, so break down the needed   
   acceleration (you need to go from zero to ~11 km/s) into 5 gee "chunks" and   
   apply that much with each    
   successive charge. The longer the gun, the better because the payload will   
   reach a more or less constant velocity after a while due to air friction   
   (unless you want an evacuated gun and an absolutely failsafe exit hatch at the   
   muzzle) so the distance    
   between charges gets longer, like the way electrodes are arranged in a LINAC.   
      
     I'm not going to do the math but I suspect it would work on the Moon but not   
   on Earth unless you hang the muzzle from a skyhook several km up.   
      
     It would hurt. A lot. But it could work.   
      
      
     Mark L. Fergerson   
      
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