Question about two-stage light gas guns

[Abdalrahman Azab]

Hello ... I had a question about the capabilities of the two-stage light gas guns which are used to study the effect of small meteors on spacecraft shields ... is it theoretically possible to achieve velocity above 7 km / s for a projectile of about 16 grams weight and 15 mm diameter using a gun With total length 15 to 10 meters - 10 meters excluding the launch tube and 12.5 meters including the launch tube, 15 meters including the Target capsule for example - I think this is practically impossible.. Is this possible? and What is the shortest tube length of the pump to achieve this speed ... Thank you.

 

[berkeman]

Summary:: What is the shortest pump tube length sufficient to achieve a velocity of 7 kilometers per second for a projectile weighing approximately 15 grams? Is it possible to achieve this with a 5-6 meter long pump tube? .. I think this is impossible

Hello ... I had a question about the capabilities of the two-stage light gas guns which are used to study the effect of small meteors on spacecraft shields ... is it theoretically possible to achieve velocity above 7 km / s for a projectile of about 16 grams weight and 15 mm diameter using a gun With total length 15 to 10 meters - 10 meters excluding the launch tube and 12.5 meters including the launch tube, 15 meters including the Target capsule for example - I think this is practically impossible.. Is this possible? and What is the shortest tube length of the pump to achieve this speed ... Thank you.

Welcome to PhysicsForums.

What reading have you done so far on this? What information sources have you found? It looks to be a pretty well developed technology (although highly specialized), with good datapoints for what is being used right now. I started at Wikipedia reading about Hypervelocity Projectiles, and ended up at their page on Light Gas Guns:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-gas_gun