california key people john hunter scientist website quicklaunchinc.com quicklaunch is a currently inactive company attempting to use a type of space gun to launch payloads into low earth orbit . it is a university spin off of the sharp project which ended 2005 . contents 1 quicklauncher 2 project phases 3 hiatus 4 see also 5 references 6 external links quicklauncher edit the quicklauncher spacegun the quicklaunch proposed firing apparatus was a light gas gun using hydrogen as the working gas and natural gas as the explosive heat source . heating and pre pressurizing the hydrogen working gas takes 10 minutes before the shot and most of the hydrogen is recovered by a muzzle muffler at the end of the launch tube to be reused for subsequent launches . the 1 100 metres 3 600 ft long gun would be for the most part submerged in the ocean . its horizontal and vertical direction azimuth and elevation could be adjusted based on customer launch requirements . the proposed launcher was designed to give projectiles an initial speed of 6 km s 3.7 mi s while the earth orbital speed is 6.9 to 7.8 km s. the projectile design therefore included a one stage rocket which ignites some time after launch . the designed payloads could include spacecraft satellites consumable water or fuel to supply a propellant depot in orbit . projected dollar cost per pound to orbit were 500 1 100 kg . 1 2 project phases edit a one year 2 million dollar project to break the record height of 180 kilometres 110 mi for a projectile fired from a space gun which was achieved in project harp . a two year 10 million dollar project to launch to orbit a 1 kilogram 2.2 lb payload each time . a two year 50 million dollar project to launch to orbit a 45 kilograms 99 lb payload each time . a three year 500 million dollar project to launch to orbit a 450 kilograms 990 lb payload each time capable to supply 4 million lbs 2 000 tons yearly and launching 5 times a day . 3 note 990 lbs x 5 times a day x 365 days a year is only 1.8 million lbs hiatus edit in a 2016 article hunter remarked that the work had been put in stasis due in part to elon musk s company spacex taking up the challenge of reducing costs to orbit . hunter however invited someone with a similar level of money and motivation to take a fresh look at the approach . 4 see also edit spaceflight portal non rocket spacelaunch super high altitude research project references edit quicklaunch inc affordable space exploration . archived from the original on 2012 07 24 . retrieved february 14 2012 . cannons to the planets . googletechtalks . 2009 . http web.archive.org web 20120927084853 http quicklaunchinc.com investors space exploration http www.bbc.com future story 20160317 the man who tried to make a supergun for saddam hussein external links edit shooting right for the stars with one gargantuan gas gun excerpt from 1996 smithsonian magazine on hunter s work with sharp . the final paragraph contains the financial assessment . sharp gun accelerates scramjets to mach 9 by william b scott aviation week and space technology september 9 1996 page 63 . encyclopedia astronautica sharp video interview of john hunter gas station in space moonandback 2011 audio interview of john hunter on the space show the feasibility of launching small satellites with a light gas gun . citeseerx 10.1.1.203.4552 missing or empty url help detailed pdf of a land based version v t e non rocket spacelaunch spaceflight static structures compressive space tower pneumatic freestanding tower tensile orbiting skyhooks skyhook momentum exchange tether space elevators space elevator dynamic structures space fountain orbital ring launch loop endo atmospheric tether projectile launchers electrical coilgun mass driver railgun startram chemical space gun blast wave accelerator ram accelerator mechanical slingatron reaction drives air launch spaceplanes laser propulsion beam powered propulsion buoyant lifting balloon buoyant space port high altitude platform see also rocket sled launch megascale engineering category retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title quicklaunch & oldid 739180912 categories space gunsaerospace companies of the united statesprivate spaceflight companiesspace accesshidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameterspages using web citations with no url navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 13 september 2016 at 07 08 . text is available under the creative commons 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