Shooting into outer space

#3
The Von Karman definition of where the atmosphere ends and space begins is roughly 62 miles above sea level. Technically, the true border between atmosphere and "space", it is about 300 miles above sea level. This is where gas molecules are so thinly spread out that they are practically feet apart from each other...

The highest velocity rifle round fired straight up into the sky might travel to around 2 miles at most. As soon as the bullet leaves the barrel of the gun, it immediately starts to lose velocity. The heavier the bullet, the farther it will travel due to inertia. But eventually, it will succumb to air resistance and gravity. So even the fastest rifle bullet will only reach to around the upper troposphere before falling.

Here is a good article on the physics of bullet flight, especially vertical flight. They used a .30-06 as the control for a rifle round and a 9mm Luger for pistol:

https://www.wired.com/2009/09/how-high-does-a-bullet-go/amp
 
#6
My friend Dangerous Dave said he has shot into space several times. I asked him how he knew the bullets went into space , he told me that the bullets did not come down again so they must have done..... Makes sense to me
 
#15
If your bullet could achieve a muzzle velocity of something like 37,000 ft/s then yes, I believe it's possible.

I think that number is correct. Escape velocity for projectile from the surface of the earth. All you gotta do is supply the energy to get it to that speed.

Oops, and don't forget atmospheric drag effects, so probably even more...
 
#18

Yup, only around 6 x faster than any pyrotechnically propelled gun in series production of any sort. And, at that point, it's APFSDS rounds from tank guns anyway.

Sandialab has had 9 km/s (~ 30,000 fps) guns for lab stuff since the 90s, and could presumably get to escape velocity if there was any value in it. But they are building sized affairs, and fire very small (e.g. 1 g, 15 gr) projectiles, which are fired in vacuum as they would turn to plasma, then disappear as mentioned above, within a few meters of the muzzle otherwise.

I too am unclear about atmospheric drag. The textbook escape velocity calculation is for altitude from the surface of the body, so that's the speed from the earth's surface sure, but there's a bit of stuff in the way, so better go a little faster while you are at it. Or, if you have a spare billion dollars to build such a gun, maybe hire a couple engineers first?
 
#20
Lasers man...Lasers...

They can technically be called guns too. Those old CRT monitors and TV's had electron guns inside that spat out light onto the inner part of the screen.

As soon as they make em' into hand held affairs that can stop a charging 2-legged predator with the same effect as a .45 ACP, I'mma get my ass in line to get one.

 
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#22
.22lr shoots into space with ease.

This is why it got so expensive a couple of years ago during the top secret alien wars. The Army Seals were shooting down UFO’s for months with their MP5’s shooting .22lr.
 
#23
You can do it, but it takes some practice. I'd suggest starting with a nice high powered compound bow and arrow first to get the feel of it, then you can move on to the higher powered rifles. Just make sure to shoot straight up or it will drift and not properly exit the atmosphere.
 
#34
I knew there was a reason that we keep getting bullet bullet holes in our roof at work every New Years, Fourth of July, Labor Day, etc. I’m pretty sure that someone painted the words “outer space” on the roof.
 
#39

That opens up a whole new can of worms! Supposedly we now live in a "Truman Show" like dome and it's all made like this. Wow. In that case, I suppose the crew up there is just waiting for you to fire one and it reach max. altitude so they can just reach out and grab it. That's why they don't come back down. Duh.
 
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