Whenever I looked at the human canon gun in circuses I would cringe and keel over in pain at the thought of the impact that the poor clown would have to endure on his unmentionables. However, there is no doubt that we will have to dig into some more painful possibilities in the future, like a gun that shoots men as far as space. Ouch! It’s got a barrel that’s 47 meters long and uses compressed hydrogen gas and is capable of firing light-weight objects at speeds of 3km/s. The maker of the gun, one John Hunter, who’s in pursuit of making all ‘things’ go up, has started a company called Quicklaunch to create a more powerful gun that will bring my childhood fear to life.

Hunter also described a possible future venture of his that will have a 1.1 km long gun that will shoot 450 kg objects at 6 km/sec. Whoosh goes not one, but four men!

[Newscientist]