This whole idea of shooting cargo into #orbit with some kind of big gun is just stupid.
Just read an article today saying #Longshot want to build a 10km long "gun", the cargo is supposed to be accelerated to 5km/s. Assuming constant acceleration, that means the cargo will stay in the barrel for 4 seconds (travelling all the 10km), accelerating at a rate of 1250m/s², or more than 120g. What cargo is gonna survive that?
Next, assume your cargo does survive that acceleration somehow. Then the cargo would have to survive the pressure and heating from air resistance, which grows *quadratically* with speed. Space crafts need #heatshields to survive entering earth's atmosphere *from the top*, where the air is super-thin. They've already bled off a lot of speed before they hit the deeper and more dense parts of the atmosphere. But #Longshot want to "fly" something at 5 km/s *at ground level* (speed would decrease as the cargo gains height).
Next, assume your cargo can survive that as well. Of course, 5 km/s is not enough to reach orbit. For low earth orbit (say, comparable to the ISS), you wanna go at 7-8 km/s in 500km height. So for the cargo to actually reach #space, you need to shoot up not just the cargo itself, but a small rocket engine, fuel for it, electronics to control it and some kind of antenna. And all of that has to survive 120g of acceleration.
Sorry, I don't buy it. Why do investors invest in something like this? Don't they see the technical problems? Do they invest knowing that it will fail, but count on later finding someone stupid enough to buy their shares?