From: cdorrough@nortonconsultants.com   
      
    wrote in message   
   news:1103302164.403317.25080@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...   
   > Cameron Dorrough wrote:   
   >   
   > > I'd reckon the world's terrierorists might like   
   > > the idea too.. "Man-made Meteors Rain Down on   
   > > Captial City" - such glorious headlines!! ;-)   
   >   
   > Can I watch while they pick it up and turn it to aim   
   > it?   
   >   
   > There's something sort of *permanent* about the   
   > orientation of a several kilometers long railgun.   
      
   >   
   > Presumably it would be aligned to the local great   
   > circle, for efficiency.   
      
   Assuming the thing is pointed anywhere roughly east-west, Continental   
   America makes a pretty big target, so you wouldn't need to "aim" the thing   
   precisely - just select the orbit and/or trajectory you need by altering the   
   amount of "gunpowder"... and time the shot to take out a few LEO satellites   
   along the way perhaps?   
      
   If you only want to scare the crap out of people (ie. cause panic), using a   
   decent-sized boulder it would not really matter what you hit either (cows,   
   haystacks, people?...) - as long as you don't land in the ocean (a near   
   miss?) or do one complete orbit and target the point of origin ;-)   
      
   The newspapers will do the rest of the damage...   
      
   > I'd guess by the time you've reached the prosperity   
   > level to build such a beast, you've sort of passed   
   > the part of life where terrorism holds much   
   > attraction, anyway.   
      
   FWIW, I, for one, wish you were right.   
      
   Cameron:-)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)