More on the Space Cannon

I could have been a bit hasty in saying that the Space Cannon concept is around the corner.  So, I spent some time today on the subject to see if anything there looks different this time around.

Here's a wikepedia entry on the man, John Hunter, who presented the video which I had linked to in the earlier post.  There are a few more links about the man from the wikipedia entry to check out, but information is sketchy.

This presentation is a little over a year old, so I am looking for signs of progress since that time.  He is on a 8 year time table according to the presentation.  So, it has been a year.  What has been done in the past year?  It's a bit hard to tell from where I am standing.  This comment is the most recent I can find.  It doesn't tell anything.  In fact, it isn't even relevant.

In his presentation, he admits that he is not a rocket scientist, but his concept will require one.  That's because the projectile that he plans to put into orbit with his space gun will need a rocket to get into orbit.  Also, he says in his presentation that he will meet some venture capitalists for funding.  I wonder how that went.

If, by any chance, that things went well, sometime in the next few years, there could be an IPO for his company.  A lot will have to happen before that can occur, however.  For one thing, he will need a customer.  Most likely, even at this point, his only customer is likely to be NASA.  Maybe some private companies can use this service,  however.  I am not well versed on the subject enough to make a guess on the probability of that.  If he can secure one big customer, like NASA, he could be on his way.

So, in the end, his problem is that he could have a technology that needs a customer.  Without a mission from NASA or a private customer with a need for his service, it won't matter if his idea will work or not.

Now for a dash of speculation.  What if you were to employ this concept on the Moon?  It would be a way to avoid using much propellant.  And it would be better than a mass driver.  That, according to Hunter.  The trick would be in getting the gun up there.  But a lunar version of a gun like this wouldn't have to be nearly as powerful.

If a version of this gun were to be used to move lunar volatiles to the equatorial region so that a Moonstalk could be built, that would be interesting, yes?