Mun Gun... Not what you think.

[fcdrifter13]

So in the past couple of weeks I have made a small Mun base keeping part counts low and collecting Kethane. Now what to do with said Kethane. I have had the though about making an orbiter to send my vast sums of the stuff to and then fuel some of my larger ships, which all well and good, but then another thought hit me. My mun base is on its equator and I happen to have a hill side facing its prograde...... so my thought was this. I always see people wanting to make rails for some reason or another. I think I would like to make a lunar cannon type of device where you send a rocket fueled by kethane down a track up the hill side and into orbit. I remember playing Final Fantasy 8 a long time ago and they had a similar device to send people to thier moon station. I really have no idea what I would do with them after that but I also have the construction mod that can go along with kethane so it would be interesting.

[CosmicScientist]

Well that is an interesting idea and it would be best if you could do it just using electricity rather than rocket fuel to get most of their orbit done with an initial speed-up but to give you an idea that might work for a little time, make a vehicle which carries to fuel, has airplane wheels on it (so you don't have to worry about a top speed) and rover wheels so you can drive it around to get the right position when the airplane gear is pulled up. If your hill is flat enough, you can rocket your way up it hopefully with enough stability and get most of your orbit done and only need to correct it at your apoapsis.

[fcdrifter13]

Made that in about 5 mins, It needs some kind of wheel system to keep it strait but cause it instasplodes 9/10 times because it gets stuck on the rails, I think maybe some air plane gear in the morning should do the trick. One on top 2 on either side and the 1x1 steel should keep it glued to the track.....

[SkyRender]

Of course, Final Fantasy VIII's space sequence is about as true to real life as your average 1950s space opera serial, but you can build a suborbital cannon that works... on the Mun. From Kerbin's surface, good luck. You'd need a ridiculously powerful engine.

[RodentCyclone]

This was EXACTLY what I thought. That said, I'm really curious if this works, or even provides enough of a boost to justify the effort.

[SiliconPyro]

Contrary to your title, this is exactly what I thought. Very Kerbal, BTW. Good luck.

[Dangerous_Beans]

mass drivers are a pretty good idea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver), and it's a pity we don't have them in KSP. i would love to build a bunch and use them to fire rocks at kerbin (i read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress as a kid, and it left an impression )

Well that is an interesting idea and it would be best if you could do it just using electricity rather than rocket fuel to get most of their orbit done with an initial speed-up but to give you an idea that might work for a little time, make a vehicle which carries to fuel, has airplane wheels on it (so you don't have to worry about a top speed) and rover wheels so you can drive it around to get the right position when the airplane gear is pulled up. If your hill is flat enough, you can rocket your way up it hopefully with enough stability and get most of your orbit done and only need to correct it at your apoapsis.

that seems like it would be less efficient than just using a rocket.

the benefit of mass driver type things is that you can use external power sources, using a rocket car seems like it would just have to be heavier than a similar rocket.

maybe if you can use it to pickup lateral speed with a low initial T/W ratio it would be worth? but my experience of high speed cars in KSP is that they mostly want to fall over and explode.

[omegamatrixhh]

KAS has electromagnets. I'm not sure as I have not looked since I am not at a computer, but I believe such parts could*be modified in terms of strength or even polarity. Perhaps magnetic propulsion along a track of a space plane/shuttle thing with some kethane tanks?

[spacecake]

that seems like it would be less efficient than just using a rocket.

Since when do Kerbals care about efficiency?

[Dkmdlb]

This idea is used to great effect in Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress." Might be a good idea to read about it there for more ideas.

[Wayfare]

I did build a space cannon on Minmus before. The ammo has about 900m/s delta-v so it should work OK on the Mun as well.

Of course firing a payload to orbit in a single shot is impossible because of physics, though you can achieve escape velocity and leave the body altogether.