Underwater rocket launcher
Here’s a weird idea for reaching the Moon - the hydro pump accelerator (HYPACC). Basically, it’s like a gigantic water rocket, only way cooler.
We ran a feature on the original idea back in 2000, but they designers have just released the blueprints for a new and improved launcher. The idea is to release a launch platform deep beneath the ocean and use its rise to the surface to pressurise hydrogen and release a projectile at very high velocity. This animation explains roughly how it would work.
I must admit, at first glance it seems a bit crazy. It reminds me of Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon, which tells the story of a mad-cap plan to shoot a crewed projectile at the Moon using a gigantic underground cannon.
But then there are plenty of other outlandish ideas for launching stuff into space, from enormous superconducting railgun rings to 200-km-per-hour space […]
Original post by http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2007/03/underwater-rocket-launcher.html