Space Guns

[JMBuilder]

Title got your attention, didn't it? The term "space gun" is a bit ambiguous, but in this case, it refers to using a cannon to blast an object above the atmosphere for relatively cheap launches. Sorry, but the only "space gun" in the sense of actual armament that I know of was a modified Soviet autocannon tested from a space station, which I wouldn't be opposed to having as well. 

In KSP2, there would be several tiers of space gun facilities that would be unlocked one at a time in career mode or always available in sandbox mode. Each tier obviously gets progressively more expensive as they're built and used, and each type of gun would have a real-life counterpart or concept.

And no, these could not be abused as weapons, at least not to any meaningful extent. At best, players could construct the higher-tier variants at colonies on other celestial bodies, but even then, they're stationary installations as opposed to mobile war machines.

 

Tier I: Coastal Gun

An old wartime coastal defense cannon repurposed to launch probes to study the effects of extreme acceleration. Small compared to its higher-tier counterparts and more-or-less unable to launch anything capable of reaching orbit.

 

Tier II: Railway Gun

Imagine the Gustav Railway Gun being repurposed to lob high-altitude probes. Thanks to its large caliber, it's relatively easy to build good-sized and sturdy probes within its confines, but it sacrifices initial velocity, meaning the player is limited to suborbital test flights or, at best, inefficiently large fuel reserves to continue to orbit. The sudden jolt when firing limits probes to stronger and heavier components, meaning it can only really deploy small communication satellites.

 

Tier III: High-Altitude Research Gun

Based on Project HARP, the first dedicated "space gun" constructed by connecting two naval gun barrels into one long cannon. Although it's of a smaller caliber than the Railway Gun, it achieves a much higher velocity, making it much more efficient for launching a rocket-equipped probe to a suitable altitude to guide itself into orbit. The player has to put even more care into making compact and sturdy probes that can handle the near-instantaneous acceleration.

 

Tier IV: Multi-Charge Hillside Gun

Based on the V-3, developed as a last-ditch revenge weapon at the end of WWII. This highly unique cannon ignites several charges using solid rocket fuel instead of gunpowder as the projectile travels up the barrel. An upscaled version in KSP would provide a much softer acceleration thanks to the successive rocket-fuel-based charges, allowing more delicate satellite components to survive the acceleration.

 

Tier V: Blast Wave Accelerator

A more refined concept of a multi-charge cannon, using even rings of explosive propellant to more efficiently launch a projectile.

 

Tier VI: Ram Accelerator

This makes use of the ram effect as a more fuel-efficient projectile launch system.

 

Tier VII: Mass Driver

The Mass Driver is a near-future concept. It is effectively a giant railgun, using intense electromagnetism to propel projectiles to astonishing velocities. It is the ultimate mix of velocity and soft acceleration for throwing vessels above the atmosphere. It's at this tier where the player can finally launch manned or just larger vessels into space.

Edited August 13, 2020 by JMBuilder

[Guest]

I could see a Giant railgun for non-atmospheric flight. But in the atmosphere I feel like it's not a good idea. Tier three would do the job in atmosphere. Or what would be considerable I hope to some: ROCKET RIDING A NUKE (pretty much Orion but with bigger nukes I guess)!

 

[pandaman]

This appears to be a plot to sneak in long range artillery 'under the radar' and circumvent the 'no stock weapons' policy.  

However, the idea of using a 'gun', of whatever type, as the initial launch stage may have some merit in game.  Lob it into a high tragectory, fire the engine to raise Ap if needed, and then circularise. 

[JMBuilder]

15 minutes ago, pandaman said:

This appears to be a plot to sneak in long range artillery 'under the radar' and circumvent the 'no stock weapons' policy.  

However, the idea of using a 'gun', of whatever type, as the initial launch stage may have some merit in game.  Lob it into a high tragectory, fire the engine to raise Ap if needed, and then circularise. 

As long as there's an astronomy-related science aspect to these kinds of things, I think it's fully justified.  There's also the fact that these would be stationary facilities as opposed to actual weapon parts, so that's an extra layer towards preventing these from being used as tools of Kerbal war. At most, players might be able to construct facilities like this on other planets with the new base building mechanics, but it's still not exactly a mobile war machine.

Heck, there was even an experiment conducted on Earth's magnetic field with nuclear detonations. It was called Operation Argus. There's an astronomy-oriented reason to add nuclear warheads to the game.

Edited August 11, 2020 by JMBuilder

[mattinoz]

Let us see what happen with physic and multi-bodies interacting. for colonies and Kerbals walking on colonies. Colony runsways and such.

Better physics might allow home brew space cannons, also might be more useful on colonies with low atmosphere and orbiting construction given you can make fun but not useful cannons now to de-orbit Kerbals.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, mattinoz said:

Better physics might allow home brew space cannons

You would need fluid dynamics for that. I don't see any indication that that's going to be in.

[Bej Kerman]

5 hours ago, JMBuilder said:

5 hours ago, pandaman said:

This appears to be a plot to sneak in long range artillery 'under the radar' and circumvent the 'no stock weapons' policy.  

However, the idea of using a 'gun', of whatever type, as the initial launch stage may have some merit in game.  Lob it into a high tragectory, fire the engine to raise Ap if needed, and then circularise. 

As long as there's an astronomy-related science aspect to these kinds of things, I think it's fully justified.  There's also the fact that these would be stationary facilities as opposed to actual weapon parts, so that's an extra layer towards preventing these from being used as tools of Kerbal war. At most, players might be able to construct facilities like this on other planets with the new base building mechanics, but it's still not exactly a mobile war machine.

Heck, there was even an experiment conducted on Earth's magnetic field with nuclear detonations. It was called Operation Argus. There's an astronomy-oriented reason to add nuclear warheads to the game.

I hope the Orion engine is in the game, but I also hope that it can be recreated with individual parts if the player wishes and is enough of a genius.

[Guest]

Mass drivers should be a colony building, if only because of Heinlein.  However, as in Heinlein, the main use would be slinging cargo from low gravity moons. Using them for launch from Earth would be impractical, on Kerbin they would be much easier, but the atmosphere would still greatly limit them. The trick with moon-based mass drivers is that not only you can launch cargo at any speed, but you can also launch it fast enough so that it escapes the moon's gravity and ends up in a convenient orbit around the parent body, from which you've only got two rocket burns: one to circularize, one to deorbit.

[K^2]

Yeah, having a mechanism for building linear accelerators on colonies would be neat. Even if it only works with specialized ships and on airless moons.

[Lewie]

Space guns? Bah!

all I need is an Orion drive and the abuse of the rotation tool! 

[Cyne]

I'd love a form of Mass driver / Space gun, seems like a good idea for new colonies 

[SOXBLOX]

Doesn't feel very Kerbal. Nothing to build, really. And only the mass driver can put you in orbit.

[ArtemisAZ]

I'll take any excuse I can find to add in insanely massive guns into everything so this has my vote.

[JMBuilder]

7 hours ago, SOXBLOX said:

Doesn't feel very Kerbal. Nothing to build, really. And only the mass driver can put you in orbit.

I would've thought that using a cannon to yeet things into space would be the most Kerbal thing ever. 

Also, even a mass driver could only put you on a suborbital trajectory (assuming you weren't going straight to escape velocity), but it would still be dang powerful.

[Guest]

The real question is what's the purpose. It's only really beneficial for smaller colonies on smaller planets in my opinion.

[JMBuilder]

2 minutes ago, The Doodling Astronaut said:

The real question is what's the purpose. It's only really beneficial for smaller colonies on smaller planets in my opinion.

The main thing is just fun and in-game science variety.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, JMBuilder said:

The main thing is just fun and in-game science variety.

I guess that's important

[JMBuilder]

I added two more space gun tiers. They're a bit more vague than the others, but still fantastic concepts.

[mcwaffles2003]

Can we put them together or would they be monolithic pieces?

Cause I smell a Kerbal Cannon Coaster Tycoon spin-off

[JMBuilder]

1 hour ago, mcwaffles2003 said:

Can we put them together or would they be monolithic pieces?

Cause I smell a Kerbal Cannon Coaster Tycoon spin-off

Not sure. I'm wondering if the higher-tier types could be modular. You might be able to combine cannon types this way, maybe starting with a blast wave accelerator that continues into a ram accelerator or mass driver.

Modular rocket sleds could be a thing too, but it's not a space "gun," per se.

Edited August 20, 2020 by JMBuilder

[Daniel Prates]

You are imagining these things as buildable contraptions as we currenty build and launch craft and spaceplanes, or more like new buildings in KSC which would unlock/upgrade?

Edited August 20, 2020 by Daniel Prates

[Catto]

i still wish you could have a firefight in space

[JMBuilder]

7 hours ago, Daniel Prates said:

You are imagining these things as buildable contraptions as we currenty build and launch craft and spaceplanes, or more like new buildings in KSC which would unlock/upgrade?

More like new buildings or constructible facilities at colonies. If they include launching mechanisms as parts, they should stick with smaller things like carrier catapults.