Let me sum up with a diagram:


(Click)

U.S.S. Starship Enterprise (186,411 miles)

photon torpedo, ftw


(btw, not a trekkie, just a bored college student not at college)

Heard about this. No explosives, it just hits a target so fast it utterly destroys it.

i believe the navy has had to upgrade nuclear reactors or add a separate one just to power the guns..

... is that a star destroyer in your little MS Paint graph?

I think this is the class of destroyer they'll be putting the railgun on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumwalt_class_destroyer

has NASA ever tried using a railgun to put shit into space? it would prolly take a shitload more energy, but it'd be wicked cool.

it would be extremely difficult to keep what ever 'shit' was being launched intact, and even more difficult to get it into a stable orbit.

Oh I wholeheartedly agree, being an AE, but it would be incredibly badass

Why would it have to be a railgun? Why not just have massive metal rods that fall from the sky?

This was from an old issue of popular science. I believe that they surmised that the rods would have to be 6 feet in diamater and made of a titanium alloy to survive reentry. But i'm sure there are other ways - i've thought this myself several times.

Right now a number of treaties prevent space from being weaponized (remember the backlash against shooting down "dangerous" satelites). I know that anything nuclear is not allowed in space by international law and treaties (other than ICBMs), and a number of other weapons are illegial. i wonder how putting a giant bullet in space would go over (really i do)

but honestly - its only a matter of time before "Pirates of the Asteroid Belt". seriously though - i highly doubt that space will remain forever neutral and criminal/terrorist/bad-guy free.