Projectile launcher draws on gunpowder propulsion but brings the technology into the new space age
It was jointly developed by aerospace engineers in Nanjing, Shanghai and Shenyang and unveiled last month in the peer-reviewed Chinese journal Acta Aeronautica et Astronautica Sinica.
Unlike conventional guns that can produce blinding flashes, intense vibrations and clouds of debris, the new device creates no smoke, no light and little vibration when fired, according to the paper.
This is achieved through a closed-gas, energy-absorbing mechanism.
That means a capsule – containing a net for capturing debris – can be precisely launched towards its target without any harmful jolt to the launch platform, said the team led by Yue Shuai, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Nanjing University of Science and Technology.
