The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

374 Shah-Nama
by the Space Shuttle (STS-72) about 10 months later on
January 20, 1996.
Shah-Nama
An epic poem by the Persian poet Firdausi (A.D. 1010) in
which the hero king Kai-Kaus achieves flight with the
help of four eagles, reminiscent of the method used by
Lucian’s Icaro-Menippus.
SHARP (Super High Altitude Research Project)
A light-gas gun developed at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory,
California, and funded by the Strategic Defense
(“Star Wars”) Initiative as a possible antimissile defense
weapon. It consisted of an 82-m-long, 36-cm-caliber
pump-tube and a 47-m-long, 10-cm-caliber gun barrel, in
an L-shaped configuration. This arrangement was chosen
to circumvent one of the main technical problems with a
space cannon, namely that the projectile cannot outrun
the gas molecules, which push it along the gun barrel.
The speed of these molecules, at any temperature, can be
calculated from the laws of physics and is higher the
smaller the mass of the gas molecule. The lightest and
best gas for the job is hydrogen, but hydrogen is not produced
as a product of any explosive mixture. The solution
in SHARP was to use a gun with two connected
barrels, an auxiliary barrel and a main one in which the
payload is accelerated. The two barrels were perpendicular
to each other and separated by a partition that shattered
when the pressure on it became too high. Rather
than a shell, the auxiliary barrel carried a heavy piston,
and its volume, between piston and partition, was filled
with hydrogen. When the explosive mixture, consisting
of methane and air, on the other side of the piston was
detonated, the piston raced down the auxiliary barrel,
compressing and heating the hydrogen ahead of it. At a
certain point, the pressure of the hot hydrogen broke the
partition, allowing the hydrogen to flow into the main
barrel and propel the payload.
SHARP began operation in December 1992 and
demonstrated velocities of 3 km/s (8 to 9 times the speed
of sound) with 5 kg projectiles fired horizontally. Impressive
as this capability sounds, it falls well short of what is
needed to fire projectiles into space (at least 24 times the
speed of sound for a low-altitude circular orbit), even if
the barrel were pointed upward. Moreover, the $1 billion
needed to fund space launch tests never materialized. In
1996, project leader John Hunter founded the Jules Verne
Launcher (JVL) Company in an effort to develop the
concept commercially. The company planned first to
build a prototype Micro Launcher system that would fire
1.3-mm projectiles and demonstrate several new technologies,
including the use of three pairs of supplemental
gas injectors along the barrel, as used in the Valier-
SHARP (Super High Altitude Research Project) The SHARP
light gas gun nearing completion in August 1992 at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory. The gun’s pump tube runs
from top-right to middle-left where it meets the high pressure
chamber. Originating in the high pressure chamber, the launch
tube runs from middle-left to out-of-shot at the bottom-right
corner. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Oberth gun and the V-3 (see “V” weapons). The fullscale
gun would have been bored into a mountain in
Alaska for launches into high-inclination orbits, have a
muzzle velocity of 7 km/s, and fire 5,000-kg projectiles,
each 1.7 m in diameter and 9 m long. Following the burn
of the rocket motor aboard the projectile, a net payload
of 3,300 kg would have been placed into low Earth orbit.
SHARP experience indicated that the space gun could
have been fired up to once a day. Thus, a single gun
could orbit over 1,000 tons a year into orbit at a cost per
kilogram one-twentieth that of conventional rocket
launchers. Payloads would be subjected to accelerations
of about 1,000g during launch, so Hunter recruited specialists
to design prototype hardened satellite systems.
JVL was still operating in 1998, but no investors came
forward to finance the multibillion dollar development
cost. 266
Shavit
An Israeli three-stage, solid-propellant launch vehicle
developed by Israel Aircraft Industries from the Jericho-2
medium-range ballistic missile. Shavit (“comet”) has successfully
launched several Ofeq satellites; however, its
launch capabilities are restricted by the need to avoid violating
neighboring Arab countries’ airspace. Launches
take place from Palmachim.
Shepard, Alan Bartlett, Jr. (1923–2001)
One of the original Mercury Seven astronauts. Shepard
was the first American in space, piloting Mercury-
Redstone 3 (Freedom 7) and serving as backup pilot for
Mercury-Atlas 9. He was subsequently grounded due to
an inner ear ailment until May 7, 1969, during which
time he served as chief of the Astronaut Office. Upon
returning to flight status, Shepard commanded Apollo
14, at age 47 becoming the oldest human to walk on the