Space artillery. Artillery in orbit: Orbital combat stations
Subject of the ban: placing into orbit around the Earth any objects with nuclear weapons or any other types of weapons mass destruction, installing such weapons on celestial bodies and placing them in outer space in any other way.
Main prohibiting document: Treaty on Principles for the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Others celestial bodies(UN General Assembly)
Ratified by states (as of January 2012): 101
There are many military spacecraft flying in low-Earth orbit - American GPS (NAVSTAR) and Russian GLONASS, as well as numerous surveillance, reconnaissance and communications satellites. But there are no weapons in orbit yet, although attempts to launch them into space have been made repeatedly. The result was an understanding of the fact that conventional weapons in space you can only fight with hypothetical alien invaders. And the deployment of nuclear weapons, like any other weapons of mass destruction, was prohibited by the resolution General Assembly UN. However, despite this ban, projects to place both conventional and nuclear weapons in low-Earth orbit were developed.
In the early 1960s, the military was already looking at outer space, but had absolutely no idea what military operations in space would look like. By analogy with air war it seemed like something like space fortresses with atomic bombs, cannons and machine guns.
Orbital artillery
In the early 1960s, no one knew what war in space would look like. The military imagined “space fortresses” armed with bombs (including atomic bombs), missiles, cannons and machine guns, surrounded by a swarm of fighters and converging in battle in orbit (remember that George Lucas did not film his “Star Wars” until 1977). Therefore, both in the USSR and in the USA it was quite seriously designed space weapon- from guided missiles"space-space" to space artillery. The USSR developed warships - the Soyuz R reconnaissance aircraft and the Soyuz P missile-armed interceptor (1962−1965), the Zvezda 7K-VI equipped with a machine gun (1965−1967), and even the Almaz manned orbital station (OPS). "with a cannon mounted on it. True, the space-to-space rockets and the space machine gun never “sniffed space,” but the cannon was luckier.
The Nudelman-Richter NR-23 aircraft rapid-fire cannon installed on the Almaz (a modification of the tail gun of the Tu-22 jet bomber) was intended for protection against enemy inspector satellites and interceptors at a distance of more than 3000 m. The gun spat out 950 shells weighing 200 g each. speed of 690 m/s and created a recoil of 218.5 kgf, which was compensated by two main engines with a thrust of 400 kgf or rigid stabilization engines with a thrust of 40 kgf.
Explosion in orbit
What will happen if a nuclear weapon is detonated in the upper layers of the atmosphere (30-100 km and above)? There is no blast wave there, and the main damaging factor in this case, gamma radiation and electromagnetic pulse (EMP) will appear. A powerful flow of gamma rays will cause ionization of underlying atmospheric gases, forming a mass of fast electrons and relatively slow ions. Electrons interact with the Earth's magnetic field, forming for a short time the most powerful currents. A gigantic potential difference (field strength of the order of tens of kV/m) will arise between the ionized layer and the Earth’s surface for several minutes. All this will lead to the formation of a powerful electromagnetic pulse(EMP), which will induce in any conductors within the range of action high voltage and will disable almost any electronic equipment not specially protected, telecommunication lines, power transmission lines and transformer substations, as well as long time(many hours) will disrupt radio communications. The radius of destruction of EMP weapons is enormous - with nuclear explosion at an altitude of 500 km it is estimated to be over 2000 km! The disadvantage of EMP weapons is their “indiscriminateness”: they are equally effective at damaging both your own and other people’s electronics.
In April 1973, Almaz-1, also known as Salyut-2, was launched into space, and the following year the first crewed flight of Almaz-2 (Salyut-3) took place. Although there were no enemy orbital interceptors in orbit, this station still fired the first (and last) space cannon salvo. When the station's service life expired, on January 24, 1975, before leaving orbit, a burst of shells (burnt up in the atmosphere) was fired from a cannon against the orbital velocity vector to find out how the shooting affected the dynamics of the OPS. The tests were successful, but this marked the end of the age of orbital artillery.
Orbital Sword
In the late 1970s, the United States set an ambitious goal to create a reliable missile defense system that could intercept high-speed warheads ballistic missiles. Lasers were considered as an ideal means, allowing them to intercept a target at the speed of light and placed in orbit. In order to radically reduce the beam divergence and increase power, within the framework of the Excalibur project in the USA they tried to create an orbital X-ray laser. As a working fluid, he used fully ionized plasma, into which thin (0.1−0.5 mm) long (10 m) copper or zinc rods were transformed during the explosion of a 30-kt nuclear charge.
Over 50 years of development, military space doctrine has undergone significant changes. Orbital battle fortresses remained the stuff of fiction, but anti-satellite missiles became a reality. SM-3 missiles (pictured) Aegis systems, installed on missile cruisers of the Arleigh Burke and Ticonderoga classes, make it possible to shoot down satellites in low Earth orbit.
The plasma began to expand at a speed of about 50 km/s, but pumping and emitting a short (less than 1 ns) laser pulse required approximately 30 ns, so the plasma diameter barely had time to exceed 1–2 mm. Each charge evaporated and ionized about a hundred rods, which were supposed to be individually targeted, ensuring the transmission of a 1-ns pulse with an energy of 5−6 kJ over a distance of up to 100 km. Such charges were either placed in orbit in advance, or when Soviet missile launches were detected, they were launched from submarines.
On paper it looked beautiful, but in reality... On March 26, 1983, in an underground mine at a test site in Nevada, as part of the Cabra program, the first and only explosion of a nuclear-pumped X-ray laser with a power of 30 kt was carried out. All rods were aimed at one target, the pulse energy was 130 kJ, but the high divergence could not be overcome - the size of the spot at a distance of 100 km was calculated to be almost ten meters.
Jules Verne's dream of going from a cannon to the moon is considered ridiculous by many, but over the decades engineers and scientists have returned to it again and again. Although launching people into space in this way will not work, tiny satellites can easily withstand the overloads of a shot. So it’s too early to say who will “laugh well.”
Space guns, various versions of which have popped up more than once in the fantasies of inventors, promise to reduce the cost of delivering cargo to low Earth orbit by approximately an order of magnitude. Of course, not just any item will be suitable for such an exotic launch, but its estimated price of $550 per kilogram is tempting enough to try to bring a long-standing idea to life.
This is the opinion of John Hunter, an American scientist and engineer, president and one of the founders of the Quicklaunch company, which has set itself the goal of organizing the launch of small devices into space using a cannon... 1.1 kilometers long.
The main highlight of the new system is sea-based, which brings with it a lot of advantages (illustration by John Hunter/Quicklaunch/Google Tech Talks).
As you can see, the gun barrel with auxiliary systems must float in the depths of the sea at a certain angle to the horizon. The lower edge of the entire structure is supposedly located at a depth of approximately 490 m, and the cut of the trunk is several meters above the water.
This technique elegantly solves the problem of the monstrous barrel bending under its own weight (think of engineers building a similar cannon on land). At the same time, it makes it easier to point the installation in azimuth (which is necessary to change the inclination of the orbits). Also, the gun will be easy to tow to any desired location on the equator (optimal for launching spacecraft).
One of the options for using a space gun could be the delivery of rocket fuel into low-Earth orbit. It may be possible to take a little of it with you in each launch, but the low cost of one shot will allow you to send upward a whole flotilla of shells that will “park” at the refueling station.
Interplanetary ships traveling to the Moon or Mars can already receive their fuel from it. This, in turn, will reduce the mass of payload that needs to be lifted upward for such projects (illustration by John Hunter/Quicklaunch/Google Tech Talks).
But here’s what Jules Verne probably didn’t know: it’s impossible to achieve decent speeds with a powder charge, no matter how much you push it into the gun. The projectile will not fly faster than hot gases of a given composition are capable of expanding, and this parameter depends on the speed of sound in the working fluid. That is why light gas guns were once invented: the projectile in them is pushed by expanding helium (or hydrogen). Their low molecular weight is the key to success. It belongs to this family space gun from Quicklaunch.
Here it must be said that Hunter ate the dog with light gas guns. At the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he led the project for the largest light gas gun in the world, SHARP (Super High Altitude Research Project), which operated successfully from 1992 to 1995.
In the first section (caliber 36 cm and length 82 m) of this L-shaped installation, methane was burned, its combustion products pushed a one-ton steel piston, which compressed hydrogen located on its other side. When the pressure reached 4 thousand atmospheres, a special fuse was destroyed, hydrogen entered the second barrel (10 cm by 47 m), accelerating a projectile weighing 5 kilos in it to 3 kilometers per second.
After 1995, the SHARP gun was occasionally used for testing miniature models hypersonic vehicles(photos by daviddarling.info, astronautix.com, John Hunter/Quicklaunch/Google Tech Talks).
In the future, they planned to modify this gun, teaching it to shoot upward (actually it lay horizontally) and at the same time raising the speed of the projectiles to 7 km/s, which would allow us to talk about space launches. But these plans were not implemented, mainly for financial reasons.
It should be noted that light gas guns of a much smaller size and with projectiles of much less mass achieved high speeds - up to 11 km/s. But here we are talking about practical application for space launches and there is no need to talk, unless you suddenly need to launch a steel part weighing several grams into orbit.
These guns, however, never dreamed of space. Studying the flow around bodies at hypersound, the behavior of materials at enormous pressures and temperatures (developed at the moment a high-speed projectile hits a target), modeling the erosion of spacecraft under the influence of micrometeorites and similar scientific experiments - this is the work of the currently existing light gas guns. To turn these into space cannons, it was necessary to significantly revise their design.
Scheme new gun Hunter: 1 – projectile, 2 – valve, 3 – combustion chamber (aka heat exchanger), 4 – hydrogen (illustration by Popular Science).
At Quicklaunch, Hunter got rid of the piston. In the new system natural gas burns inside a special heat exchanger chamber, which is surrounded by a second chamber - with hydrogen. Heat is transferred through the walls, causing the temperature of the hydrogen to rise to 1430 degrees Celsius.
As soon as the pressure reaches the required value, a special sliding valve opens and hot hydrogen begins to accelerate the projectile along the barrel.
After the apparatus takes off, the diaphragm at the end of the barrel immediately closes, minimizing the loss of hydrogen - it will then be cooled and compressed again to be used in next launch.
The sliding valve is shown in light red (illustration by John Hunter/Quicklaunch/Google Tech Talks).
According to the calculations of John and his associates, the Quicklaunch gun should “throw” 450-kilogram devices at a speed of six kilometers per second. And although the overload during a shot will reach 5000 g, it is already quite possible to create tiny satellites whose electronics will survive such a launch.
In addition, one of the loads in a cannon launch could be the simplest and most gentle supply materials for space stations ( drinking water, in particular).
The ascent trajectory will be quite flat, but the supergun shells will not have time to heat up greatly from friction with the air, since they will leave the atmosphere in less than 100 seconds. In addition, Hunter is considering the option of protection by applying a combustible coating to the outer surface of the devices.
These devices should accelerate to the first cosmic speed at the top. At an altitude of 100 km, such a projectile will drop its fairings and turn on its own miniature rocket engine.
Flight pattern of a sub-caliber space projectile fired from a Quicklaunch cannon. In this version, the device is protected in the atmosphere by a disposable shell (illustrations by John Hunter/Quicklaunch/Google Tech Talks).
The fact that a projectile with a high initial speed will easily overcome the first section of the path with a dense atmosphere and even go into space was proven back in 1966. Then the American-Canadian research supergun from the project
On June 25, 1974, the Salyut-3 space station flew into space with a crew of two cosmonauts. At first glance, it looked like just another ordinary space flight. Salyuts were the Soviet analogue of the American civilian spacecraft Skylab, whose tasks included conducting experiments - such as what happens to human body during a long flight. Moreover, in the era cold war he was intended to score propaganda points.
But the name “Salyut-3” was just a cover. In fact, Salyut 3 was the military space station Almaz 2.
The mission of the Almaz stations was to observe the Earth's surface, similar to the US Air Force's manned orbital laboratory, which operated in orbit in the 1960s. The idea was that the advantageous position at an altitude of 270 kilometers would give good review and turned the station into an ideal observation point. America abandoned its manned orbital laboratory, but the Soviets launched three Almaz spacecraft between 1973 and 1976.
But Salyut-3/Almaz-2 had one major difference. It was not just a military space station. It was armed. Almaz-2 was equipped with a small cannon for the purpose of conducting an experiment to see if the Soviets could spaceships defend against American anti-satellite weapons.
Few details are known, but over time some information began to emerge. As the presenter writes Western expert according to the Soviet space program, James Oberg, “according to published data, which was confirmed by the ship’s commander Pavel Popovich, a modified Soviet aircraft gun was installed at the station to intercept aircraft. It was a Nudelman-Richter cannon, similar to those models that were equipped with the MiG-19, MiG-21 and Su-7.”
Some sources believe it was a 23mm gun, while others believe it was 30mm in caliber. “The gun barrel was directed parallel to the longitudinal axis of the station, and the weapon was aimed at the target by changing the orientation of the spacecraft using a sighting screen at the control station,” writes Oberg. Wikipedia reports that the gun's ammunition load was 32 rounds.
Apparently, the test firing was carried out by remote control from the Earth at a time when there were no astronauts on board the station. This means that Almaz fired its weapons, although not in combat conditions. “On January 24, 1975, tests took place special system on board Salyut-3, which gave positive results at ranges from three thousand to 500 meters, states the article Encyclopedia Astronautica. - There is no doubt that these were tests of the on-board 23-mm aircraft gun Nudelman (other sources claim that it was a 30-mm Nudelman NR-30 cannon). The cosmonauts confirmed that during the tests the satellite target was destroyed.”
The gun on the Almaz station was definitely not an offensive weapon like the planet-exploding beam of the Death Star or hydrogen bombs, which were greatly feared by the Americans, who panicked in the 1950s due to the flights of Soviet satellites. They thought that these bombs were about to fall on their heads. But the experts different opinions as to how effective this gun would be in space combat.
Oberg writes: “At a distance of less than a kilometer, it could be extremely effective if it was not fired across the orbital movement of the station, since in this case, according to the rules of orbital mechanics, the bullets had to return back to the station!”
Tony Williams, who is creating the history of cannons and machine guns, told The National Interest: “The vibration was definitely a problem. She was discovered when the cannons installed on board the station began to fire on the ground. This means that test firing in space was only carried out during unmanned flights. The recoil had to be compensated by the propulsion system and steering. The airless space shouldn't have been a problem, but I have a suspicion that the extreme temperatures did."
Space warfare expert Paul Szymanski said it would be possible to fire a cannon in space, but it would pose some challenges, especially in terms of fire control. “The trajectory of the fired projectile will be curved due to gravity (just like on the ground), and therefore this must be taken into account in the aiming mechanism. We also need to take into account the enormous speeds at which Almaz and the target are flying,” this specialist told The National Interest. In addition, when destroying a high-speed space target at short range, Almaz could suffer from fast-flying debris.
The Soviet space cannon was a defensive weapon - but who was it supposed to defend against? From the fictional space marines in that famous and strange scene from the James Bond movie Moonraker? Anti-satellite weapons exist - according to available information, China is developing them; and in 2006, the Americans used an anti-missile missile to destroy one of their faulty satellites. However, this technique has not yet been fully tested.
In any case, it will be a pity for the poor astronaut who tries to shoot down a rocket flying at a speed of eight kilometers per second.
Despite the fact that from the standpoint today This project looks like science fiction; in the first half of the 20th century, the Germans were seriously preparing for its implementation. The development of the solar cannon was carried out by scientists located in the research centers of the small village of Hillersleben. More than 150 physicists, designers and talented engineers worked day and night on the most fantastic projects, which in the future could bring Germany absolute military superiority on the battlefield. When Allied troops entered Hillersleben in the spring of 1945, among the technical documentation they found papers on the development of a “solar cannon”. It is noteworthy that the author of this project There was a famous German scientist, one of the founders of rocket technology, Hermann Oberth. The most interesting thing is that back in 1929, the scientist, in his book “The Path to Space Flight,” proposed creating a manned orbital station in Earth orbit. In his major work, Orbert prophetically brilliantly described the principles by which today modern orbital stations are assembled from separate blocks. At the same time, the scientist’s initial plans did not include a military component of the station. Orbert just planned to place a concave mirror 100 m in diameter in the orbit of the planet for transmission to Earth solar energy for heating water and rotating turbines of power plants. However, the military, having familiarized themselves with his project, decided otherwise. The scientist was tasked with developing a giant mirror located in space for use as a deadly weapon.
"Space" shells by Gerald Bull
As you know, everything new is well forgotten old. Using the example of the material in the previous chapter, we were convinced that the development of technology is largely based on this well-known consideration.
Time after time, design thought at the next stage returns to old “forgotten” schemes in order to revive them in a new quality for new tasks. Electric rocket engines and the use of atomic energy, solar sails and antigravity - all this was invented in the first quarter of the 20th century, but is only being realized today.
The idea of a space gun, proposed, as we remember, by Isaac Newton, developed in the novels of Jules Verne, Faure and Graffigny and embodied in the program for creating the ultra-long-range V-3 gun, did not remain forgotten.
However, despite the apparent futility of these projects, with the onset space age and the emergence of the need for cheap all-weather means of delivering various devices into low-Earth orbit, guns were again talked about. Of course, we were no longer talking about a manned flight, but it was possible to launch small satellites into space in this way, and the idea received a second (or third?) birth.
This is primarily due to the talented Canadian designer, Dr. Gerald Bull.
Gerald Buhl was born in 1928 in the Canadian province of Ontario. His career began with stunning success - at 22, Bulle became the youngest doctor ever to defend a dissertation at the University of Toronto.
Since 1961, he taught at McGill University, and in 1964 he headed the Canadian Institute of Space Research. It was in the position of director of this institute that Bulle had the opportunity to realize the idea of a cannon capable of throwing projectiles to suborbital and orbital heights.
In 1961, the Department of Weapons Research awarded Dr. Bull $10 million as part of a joint scientific program, initiated by the US and Canadian Departments of Defense and called the High Altitude Research Program (HARP).
On initial stage During his work on the program, Dr. Bull undertook to prove that ultra-long-range guns can be used to launch scientific and military cargo to suborbital altitudes. The launch pad was erected on the island of Barbados, and launches were carried out towards the Atlantic. The "space" gun was a 16-inch (406 mm) US Navy gun weighing 125 tons. The standard 20-meter long barrel was replaced with a new one - 36 meters. Between 1963 and 1967, Dr. Bull carried out more than two hundred experimental launches using this weapon.
Gerald Bull presented the first Martlet 1 projectile, 1.78 meters long and weighing 205 kilograms, to the customer in June 1962. The projectile was made of thick sheet steel; equipment for radiotelemetric monitoring of the flight progress was located inside the body. In addition, a special device was mounted on the projectile for releasing colored smoke, through which it was possible to monitor the trajectory of the projectile and assess the influence of high-altitude air flows on the aircraft.
Martlet 1 was launched on January 21, 1963. The flight lasted 145 seconds, and during it the projectile reached a height of 26 kilometers and fell 11 kilometers from the launch site.
The second launch was equally successful, and research group The HARP project has begun development new series"Martlet 2" shells, which could already be used as suborbital aircraft.
As part of the “Martlet 2” series, shells of three main modifications were designed: 2A, 2B and 2C. Outwardly, they are almost identical to each other, but are made of different materials. A typical Martlet 2 projectile is arrow-shaped with a body diameter of 13 centimeters and a length of 1.68 meters. Four beveled stabilizers are welded into the lower part of the body. The payload of the projectile is 84 kilograms, the total weight including the shot is approximately 190 kilograms.
The Martlet 2 suborbital aircraft were tasked with a detailed study physical condition upper layers of the atmosphere. This information was of vital importance for the US and Canadian departments of defense, since, as we remember, at the same time, work was underway to create stratospheric hypersonic aircraft and new missile systems, and there was not enough data on the properties of the air environment at high altitudes. Martlet 2's payload included magnetometers, temperature sensors, electronic density meters and even a Langmuir weather laboratory. In order for the equipment to function normally after launch, the entire measuring unit was filled with epoxy resin, which protected the system components from displacement and damage during an acceleration of 15,000 g.
According to initial calculations, the speed for the Martlet 2 series projectiles should not exceed 1400 m/s, and the maximum achievable height should be 125 kilometers. However, thanks to a number of improvements (lengthening the cannon barrel, the use of new types of gunpowder and methods of igniting it), it was possible to reach much greater heights.
The projectile speed was raised to 2100 m/s, and on November 19, 1966, Martlet 2C reached a record altitude of 180 kilometers with a flight time of 400 seconds.
In addition, during the test cycle, Dr. Bull managed to reduce the cost of launching a payload to suborbital altitude to $3,000 per kilogram.
Prospects for the High Altitude Research Program (HARP)
On June 30, 1967, as a result of the sharp "cooling" in relations between the United States and Canada caused by the Vietnam War, the Canadian Department of Weapons Research officially announced the closure of the High Altitude Research Program.
The project was abandoned at the very moment when the group led by Dr. Bull was working on the creation of the smallest spacecraft in the history of mankind - the Martlet 2G-1 rocket with a solid propellant stage. The weight of the payload launched into orbit by this projectile did not exceed 2 kilograms - the optimum for the “nano-satellites” being developed today at NASA. The projectile itself was 4.3 meters long and 30 centimeters in diameter. The total weight of the projectile and shot was 500 kilograms.
Other very promising areas of the HARP program include work on the Martlet 3 and Martlet 4 series of missiles. These projectiles, having solid-fuel stages, were actually already compact missiles, the initial part of the trajectory of which was set by a cannon. Most Interest The Martlet 4 series represents us. Let's talk about it in more detail.
Initially, the HARP program did not provide for the creation of orbital delivery vehicles, focusing only on the task of studying the upper layers of the atmosphere. It was not until 1964, when an additional agreement between the Canadian Department of Research and the US government provided guaranteed funding for the program for another three years, that Dr. Bull's group started talking seriously about orbital launches. However, the leadership of the Department reacted coolly to this idea, and until the closure of the program, orbital launch enthusiasts failed to “push” the “Martlet 4” series.
According to the project that remained on paper, Martlet 4 multi-stage rockets could be used to launch payloads weighing from 12 to 24 kilograms into low-Earth orbit. In the first version of the project, the projectiles had two (or three) solid fuel stages, in later versions - stages with liquid fuel.
The first stage of a typical modification of the “Martlet 4” projectile, containing 735 kilograms solid fuel, had six stabilizers. When passing through the gun barrel, the stabilizers had to be in a folded position, and when exiting, they should have straightened, giving the projectile a rotation movement around the longitudinal axis at a speed of 4.5–5.5 revolutions per second - thus ensuring the gyroscopic stability of the projectile during the initial part of the flight , given by a cannon shot. Since the movement of the projectile in this area obeyed the laws of elementary ballistics (that is, it depended only on the power of the charge, the angle of inclination of the gun and the aerodynamics of the projectile), there was no need for a complex control and monitoring system. The first stage was supposed to launch at an altitude of 27 kilometers and burn out within 30 seconds, giving a thrust of 6900 kilograms.
The second and third stages of Martlet 4 were also solid fuel (181.5 and 72.6 kilograms of fuel, respectively) and ensured the flight of the projectile in the stratosphere and mesosphere, carrying the payload to an altitude of up to 425 kilometers.
Between the second and third stages, the designers placed a control and orientation unit. It was supposed to turn on immediately after the separation of the first stage, maintaining the roll and pitch angles specified by the program. Note that in the 60s there were no integrated circuits yet, and traditional mechanical gyroscopes could not be used in the control and orientation unit, since they would not withstand monstrous overloads. To solve this problem, specialists from McGill University and the US Army Ballistics Laboratory were involved in the development. As a result, it was designed completely new system orientation. It consisted of an analog module that received information from several sensors mounted on the projectile body and compared the incoming data with a standard. The rotation speed around the longitudinal axis was determined using an accelerometer, and the pitch angle was determined by two infrared sensors. Additional Information also came from two photosensitive elements oriented towards the sun.
Individual components of the control and orientation system were tested for resistance to overloads at a test site in Quebec; to launch them, a small 155-mm cannon was used, capable of imparting an acceleration of more than 10,000 g to a container with system elements.
The most important advantage of the Martlet 4 rockets over rocket vehicles was the short pre-flight preparation period. The designers believed that such preparation would take only a few hours versus several weeks or even months for a multi-stage launch vehicle. If necessary, four to six Martlet 4 shells could be launched per day, regardless of weather conditions.
Small suborbital cannons
Gerald Bull's work in Canada attracted the attention of scientists in the US military-industrial complex. As we have repeatedly noted earlier, American designers working on the creation of promising aircraft lacked data on physical properties and the chemical composition of the upper atmosphere. Some questions were removed as part of joint work under the HARP program. However, to solve specific problems, the Americans used small guns, which made it possible to launch small probes to altitudes of up to 70 kilometers.
In early March 1960, Lieutenant General Arthur Tradier, head of US Army research programs, assigned his subordinate Ballistics Laboratory to evaluate the possibility of using artillery to launch weather balloons. By July, the Laboratory's scientists had experimentally proven that an appropriately designed probe would withstand the effects of overloads arising from a shot, and work began to boil.
An army cannon with a caliber of 120 millimeters and a barrel length of 8.9 meters was used as the initial weapon for suborbital launches. Guns of this class were very easy to use and had the necessary mobility - they could be delivered to the firing position on a railway platform or in the back of a special truck.
Launch complexes based on 120-mm guns were built at test sites on the island of Barbados, Quebec, in the states of Alaska, Virginia, New Mexico, and Arizona. With their help, small probes for various purposes were launched to suborbital altitudes (a series of suborbital projectiles “BRL”): dipole a reflector whose trajectory was tracked by radar, a drifting weather balloon with a parachute, return containers, and the like. The cost of one launch ranged from 300 to 500 US dollars.
The operation of small “suborbital” guns demonstrated the high efficiency of such launches in studying the atmosphere, and soon the 120-mm guns were replaced by new ones - with a caliber of 175 millimeters and a barrel length of 16.8 meters. These guns made it possible to launch three times heavier loads to an altitude of over 100 kilometers.
Accordingly, the list of probes used has expanded. In addition to the traditional set of dipole reflectors, the new projectiles carried capsules with cesium nitrate to create artificial clouds and a Langmuir weather laboratory with telemetric control.
The launch complex based on a 175-mm cannon turned out to be, however, a less reliable system than its predecessors. The projectiles often did not reach the calculated height, and then Dr. Bull's group, using the accumulated experience, proposed a design for a solid-propellant projectile "Martlet 3E", which could serve as an accelerating stage for payloads launched using a 175-mm cannon.
At the same time, the estimated ceiling rose to 250 kilometers.
The Martlet 3E shells could replace the entire Martlet 3 series, freeing up the main 406mm gun for orbital launches. But, unfortunately, this project was destined to remain on paper.
Project "Babylon"
Despite the closure of the HARP program, Dr. Gerald Bull did not lose interest in the topic of “space” guns. Moreover, in 1968 he received the McCurdy Prize, Canada's most prestigious award for space-related research. In search of new investors, Bull founded his own Space Exploration Corporation. Using his Pentagon connections, he negotiated a deal with Israel. In 1973, the Bulletin “Corporation” supplied about 50 thousand artillery shells there. At the same time, the designer met the future commander of the Israeli artillery, General Abrahams David. Bulle enthusiastically said that the general was “the only person who accumulates all the possibilities to build a supergun.” Probably precisely because General David was the “only” interested person, Bull failed to implement his project in Israel.
In the mid-1970s, Dr. Bull came into contact with the South African government. His company, with the tacit connivance of the CIA, supplied Pretoria with 55 thousand shells along with documentation for their manufacture. South Africa, isolated by the UN from arms markets, paid generously for the deadly product. Things were going well, and the designer decided to expand his business. With his help, the most modern 155-mm guns began to be created in South Africa. But soon the details of this deal became public, and in 1980 Bull was jailed on charges of illegally selling military technology to Third World countries. The Space Exploration Corporation was liquidated.
After his release, Dr. Bulle moved to Belgium, where he continued his activities as an artillery expert. In March 1988, it entered into a contract with the Iraqi government to build three ultra-long-range guns: one 350 mm prototype gun (Project Little Babylon) and two full-size 1000 mm guns (Project Babylon).
If you believe the calculations of Dr. Bull, then the main guns, with a shot weight of 9 tons, could send a 600-kilogram load over a distance of over 1000 kilometers, and missile weighing 2 tons with a payload of 200 kilograms - into low-Earth orbit. At the same time, the cost of putting a kilogram of payload into orbit should not exceed $600.
The project was given the designation RS-2, and in official papers it was described as a project for a new petrochemical complex. The construction of the launch site was carried out by a British construction corporation under the leadership of Christopher Cowley.
The length of the Babylon project gun reached 156 meters and weighed 1510 tons. The gun barrel was prefabricated and consisted of 26 fragments. The recoil force of the shot would have been 27,000 tons, which was equivalent to the explosion of a small nuclear device and could have caused seismic disturbances throughout the world.
It is well known in military specialist circles that the ratio of barrel length to gun caliber should be in the range from 40 to 70, for howitzers - from 20 to 40. These values follow from the principle of operation of the gun barrel. The projectile receives primary acceleration under the influence of the shock wave formed when the propellant (accelerating charge) is ignited, and then the gases - the combustion products of this substance - press on the projectile in the barrel. Toward the outlet, their pressure gradually decreases. Therefore, the barrel cannot be as long as desired - at some point the friction between the projectile and the walls of the channel will become greater than the effect of the gases. There are also limits regarding firing range and dependence on the power of the accelerating charge. They are due to the fact that the ignition speed of modern propellants is significantly lower than the speed of shock wave propagation. Therefore, with an increase in the mass of the charge, even before its complete combustion, the projectile can fly out of the barrel.
From this point of view, the Babylon cannon is an absurdity and the fantasy of a mad engineer. But Gerald Bull found a solution to the problem in the documentation for the V-3 ultra-long-range cannon project: it is possible to increase the speed of the projectile in the barrel due to additional, sequentially ignited charges.
The V-3 project failed due to the inability to ignite intermediate charges placed in the barrel bore at exactly the right moment. Technical means, providing the required milliseconds, were not found then. The charge either fired too early and slowed down the projectile, which threatened to explode inside the barrel, or too late, not fulfilling its accelerating functions. Bull solved the synchronization problem using precision capacitors.
By the way, they were confiscated at London Heathrow Airport in April 1990 and at first it was thought that they would be used as fuses for atomic bombs. In fact, these capacitors were supposed to ensure the accuracy of sequential ignition of additional charges with an error of picoseconds! The ignition devices would be triggered by a command from pneumatic sensors that respond to changes in pressure in the barrel bore.
It was planned to place 15 intermediate charges in the 156-meter barrel of the “Big Babylon”. They would provide the projectile leaving the cannon with an initial speed of approximately 2400 m/s. Naturally, additional acceleration also has its limits - Bull seems to have come close to them. In its design, the projectile accelerates faster and faster and eventually reaches the speed of pressure propagation of the burning gas-powder mixture of the intermediate charge.
The prototype gun "Little Babylon" weighing 102 tons was built by May 1989. Her firing position was located 145 kilometers north of Baghdad, and during the tests it was planned to send a projectile to a distance of 750 kilometers.
An Iraqi deserter later testified that the gun was going to be used to deliver warheads with chemical or bacteriological filling into enemy territory, as well as to destroy enemy reconnaissance satellites.
Initially, Israeli intelligence operating in Iraq did not pay attention to the Babylon project, considering it a gamble, but when the Iraqi government involved Dr. Bull in the development of an intercontinental multi-stage missile based on the Soviet Scud missiles, the designer was given a warning.
However, Bulle refused to break the contract with Iraq and was killed under mysterious circumstances on March 22, 1990.
The guns of the Babylon project were never completed. According to the decision of the UN Security Council adopted after the end of Operation Desert Storm, they were destroyed under the control of international observers.
"Super Altitude Research Program" ("SHARP")
The American designer John Hunter from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (California) approached the problem of creating a “space” gun somewhat differently. His developments were reflected in the “Ultra-high research program"("SHARP", "Super High Altitude Research Project").
Studying the materials of the electromagnetic gun project created as part of the SDI program in 1985, John Hunter came to the conclusion that more effective weapon To solve the problem of destroying enemy ballistic missiles at significant altitudes, a “gas” gun may be used.
There is one more rule for the artillery designer - the velocity of the projectile cannot exceed the velocity of the gases in the barrel. In order to increase this speed (and therefore the height and range of the projectile), Hunter proposed replacing conventional combustion products with hydrogen, which has a much lower molecular weight and higher speed. Studying the archives, the American designer found that in 1966, NASA engineers had already tested a small hydrogen cannon that fired projectiles at a speed of 2.5 km/s. Based on this development, John Hunter built a computer model of a two-chamber gas gun, the muzzle velocity of which could reach 8 km/s. Hunter's project became interested, and Lawrence Laboratory received money to build a full-size gas gun designed to launch projectiles at cosmic speed; The development was called the “Ultra-Altitude Research Program”.
Hunter's two-module gas gun consisted of an L-shaped barrel 82 meters long and the so-called “pumping unit,” which was a sealed pipe with a diameter of 36 centimeters and a length of 47 meters. Methane gas is injected into the steel pumping pipe and ignited.
As the gas expands, it pushes a one-ton piston down the pump tube, compressing and heating the hydrogen on the other side of the piston. When the hydrogen pressure reaches 4000 atmospheres, the projectile located at the beginning of the barrel, in the right angle of the L-shaped structure, is set in motion.
The barrel, of course, was sealed, and at the moment of departure the projectile had to knock out the plastic cover. The recoil force was removed by three water compensators: one 10-ton and two 100-ton.
An experimental gas gun was built at the Lawrence Laboratory Explosives Test Facility in 1992. The first tests took place in December, and a 5-kilogram projectile fired from a cannon was able to reach a speed of 3 km/s. To further increase speed, Hunter proposed making the projectile rocket-propelled and two-stage, and the payload should have been 66% of the total weight of the projectile.
However, the $1 billion needed for Laboratory specialists to continue experiments with launching smaller projectiles into space orbit was never allocated. As a result, all work on the SHARP program was curtailed.
In 1996, the Hunter gun was used to study the flow patterns around ramjet engine models at speeds around Mach 9.
"Jules Verne Launch Company"
In 1996, after the US government refused to fund further stages SHARP program, John Hunter founded a company under the pretentious name “Jules Verne Launcher Company”.
The company initially planned to build a prototype launcher similar to Lawrence Laboratory's gas gun. On the prototype, the size of the projectiles of which should not have exceeded 1.3 millimeters, Hunter and his comrades were going to test new ideas and develop technologies related to the creation of a giant cannon. The giant cannon itself, according to their plans, should be built in a mountain in Alaska, which would make it possible to launch payloads into orbits with a high inclination. According to Hunter's calculations, with this gun it would be possible to achieve a muzzle velocity of 7 km/s, sending projectiles weighing 3300 kilograms (dimensions: diameter - 1.7 meters, length - 9 meters) into low Earth orbit at an altitude of 185 kilometers.
In the future, the payload could be increased to 5,000 kilograms.
By its design, the space gun of the Jules Verne Launch Company is a combination of the gas gun of the Lawrence Laboratory and the “lunar” gun of Guido von Pirquet. There is a combustion chamber where the methane supplied from the storage tank is ignited, a pumping unit with hydrogen, as well as side inclined chambers, inside of which charges are placed, which, when detonated, give the projectile additional impulse and acceleration.
The Jules Verne Launch Company plans to receive orders for launches of more than 1,500 tons of payloads per year. It is assumed that the cost of launching a kilogram of cargo into orbit will be 20 times less than the cost of the same launch using rocket technology.
The entire launch complex should pay for itself and start paying dividends after the 50th launch.
The only problem is that John Hunter has still not found an investor willing to finance this ambitious multi-billion dollar project.
Laser gun
Meanwhile, an even more fantastic project is undergoing preliminary testing at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This time we are talking about using a powerful laser, the beam of which should push the projectile into low-Earth orbit.
The laser launch complex was proposed by Lawrence Laboratory specialists as part of the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), aimed at developing the theoretical foundations of alternative spacecraft concepts.
The principle of operation of this complex is quite unusual.
A laser beam directed from the ground heats a special substance that covers the Bottom part a projectile shaped like a paraboloid. Evaporating, this substance creates jet thrust, pushing the projectile upward. When entering airless space, the parabolic cup is discarded and a conventional solid-fuel engine comes into action, again ignited by a laser beam.
The projectile launched by the laser launch complex has the following parameters: diameter - 2 meters, initial mass - 1000 kilograms, payload launched to an altitude of up to 1000 kilometers - 150 kilograms. The laser power consumption should not exceed 100 MW, the pulse duration should be 800 seconds.
Of course, such a complex still remains only a beautiful fantasy, very far from being realized. Nevertheless, experiments carried out on models at the Lawrence Laboratory proved the possibility of creating such a launch scheme.
Electromagnetic catapult guns
The idea of an electromagnetic gun (or electromagnetic catapult) was first proposed in 1915 by Russian engineers Podolsky and Yampolsky, using the principle of a linear electric motor invented in the 19th century by the Russian physicist Boris Jacobi. They created a project for a magnetic fugal gun with a 50-meter barrel wrapped in inductive coils. It was assumed that the projectile, accelerated by electric current, would reach an initial speed of 915 m/s and fly 300 kilometers. The project was rejected as untimely.
However, the following year, the French Fachon and Villeple proposed a similar artillery system, and during testing of its model, a 50-gram projectile accelerated to 200 m/s. The inventors claimed that electromagnetic guns will be longer-range than usual; in addition, their barrels will not overheat during prolonged shooting. But skeptics noticed that such an installation would require a barrel at least 200 meters long, which would have to be held by several stationary trusses, only slightly changing its angle of inclination, and there would be no need to talk about horizontal alignment. And to provide energy for even the simplest electromagnetic gun, it will be necessary to build an entire power plant next to it...
Experiments with electromagnetic propellant systems were resumed only after World War II. The most serious project of an electromagnetic catapult gun, designed to launch small projectiles into low-Earth orbit, was developed in the mid-80s by the National Laboratory in Albuquerque (USA) under the leadership of William Korn. A model of the launch complex was even built, which was a six-stage electromagnetic accelerator. It is designed to accelerate a projectile weighing 4 kilograms and with a diameter of 139 millimeters. Later, a project for a ten-stage accelerator appeared, designed to launch 400-kilogram projectiles with a caliber of 750 millimeters.
Also interesting is the launch complex project being developed at the American Lewis Research Center. It is designed to send containers into space with radioactive waste and includes several technical and launch sites, rooms for the preparation of projectile containers, underground storage facilities, a “firing” control center, and radar tracking stations.
According to calculations by Lewis Center staff, the cost of constructing such a facility could be $6.4 billion, with annual operating costs of $58 million. On the other hand, the savings that will be received nuclear power, if radioactive waste with long-lived isotopes is removed outside the solar system, will cover any costs.
The process of launching a container with radioactive waste will look like this. The rods spent at the nuclear power plant will be brought to the launch complex and sent to a recycling point. There, the waste will be transferred from transport containers into shielded capsules, which are parts of an orbital projectile. The design of such a projectile, made of refractory tungsten, depends on the purpose and type of payload, but in any case, the body must have minimal aerodynamic resistance; for movement along the barrel guide rail, shoes that are dropped after firing are required, and for stabilization during flight in the atmosphere, stabilizers are required.
Shortly before launch, the mounted projectile will be moved to the magazine, and from there to Charger. Behind it is a gas-dynamic additional acceleration section, which turns into a railgun barrel made of copper. At first they proposed a square-section barrel, but after experiments carried out at the Livermore Laboratory, they preferred a round cross-section, “gun-shaped”, surrounded by many solenoid coils combined into blocks.
Before starting, the coils are excited by alternating current with increasing frequency. So, on one of the prototypes of the throwing installation, voltage was applied to the first block with a frequency of 4.4 kHz, on the second - up to 8.8 kHz, on the third it increased to 13.2 kHz, and so on.
Each block of coils, interacting with a projectile rushing along the railgun, will, as it were, pick up and accelerate it until the speed reaches the design speed.
In this case, the units are equipped with their own generators with photoelectric switches that are activated when the projectile approaches fixed points in the barrel. In addition, the generators are connected to a multiplexer connected to the solenoid power amplifiers.
It is preferable to place such electromagnetic guns in mines; Moreover, to reduce energy costs, it is proposed to install them in the mountains, at altitudes of 2.5–3 kilometers.
To give the projectile additional acceleration when leaving the limits of gravity, it will be equipped with a power plant. A combination of hydrazine and chlorine trifluoride, which has a high density and sufficient specific impulse, is currently planned as a fuel.
The Soviet Union also repeatedly put forward projects for electromagnetic catapult guns. For example, in the early 70s, on the pages of popular science magazines, the project of a giant catapult station located in low-Earth orbit and serving as an intermediate point on the way of spacecraft to other planets was seriously discussed.
It was planned to use nuclear power as an energy source on board the catapult station. power plant- reactor and converter of thermal energy into electrical energy. The energy was to be accumulated in storage devices based on superconducting electromagnets - cryogenic systems with electromagnetic coils cooled to superconducting conditions. The accelerator system of the “gun” consisted of a chain of solenoids. The coils were connected in such a way that the sections through which the projectile had already passed (or spaceship), push it out, and the sections located in front retract the device. To connect the coils in this sequence, special high-current switching equipment is required, the creation of which is a separate and serious problem.
Unfortunately, all these projects remained on paper.
The main reason for such a cool attitude towards powerful electromagnetic catapult guns is that humanity is not yet faced with a task that requires a sharp increase in cargo flow between Earth and space. If such a task appears tomorrow, there is no doubt that all these “paper” developments will be immediately in demand...