Week 1

Week 1 

Definition of concept and initial research.

     We spent the first week deliberating on what exactly we were going to do. We knew, because this project was to be for another competition as well, that we wanted to explore a theoretical problem for a prototype, and decided upon the technology behind rail guns as our core concept. With the main idea of our prototype in mind, we talked about what we would do with it. We wanted to investigate the technology so that a basic understanding of the physics and limitations of rail guns was understood. The idea was that in 20 years, when the limiting parts and materials of current rail guns had progressed enough to eliminate these limits, we would have enough understanding and a far enough along "prototype" (this is a hypothetical 20 years from now) that we would be at the front of the investigation into the utilization of rail gun technology in long distance transportation, such as trans-continental/oceanic rails/trains and space elevators.

     With our core idea and vision established, we began initial research into the technology behind rail guns, to gain an understanding of how they work, what makes them successful, and what makes them not work at all. We spent most of our time on YouTube for videos demonstrating these things.