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T9000 Rail Gun Technology
The objective of the T9000 project was to successfully design and construct a linear electromagnetic accelerator capable of accelerating a lightweight payload to velocities greater than 2000m/s without hypervelocity erosion in the rail/armature interface.
In the 1950's, when the first true rail guns were built and fired, it was believed that they would provide a means to accelerate objects to virtually any desired speed and replace conventional weapons. For decades, despite enormous advances in the technology, the maximum muzzle velocities attainable were nowhere near what was believed possible, and erosion continued to be a problem. Railguns were confined to the laboratory where rails were often removed and resurfaced due to hypervelocity erosion. When achieving high accelerations through electrical action between sliding contacts, hypervelocity erosion is the rapid destruction of those contacts through arcing and friction.
Railguns differ from other means of accelerating objects in that the acceleration in the rails occurs purely by magnetic repulsion. This magnetic force is termed a "Lorentz Force", and the most significant factor in determining the force is the inductance gradient of the rails. In a well designed Rail Gun, a gun with a high inductance gradient, the most predominant factor in determining exit velocity will always be the power supply current. Thus it follows that in order to produce high muzzle velocities, long rails and/or very high currents must be used. Unfortunately, maintaining a high current through a long pair of rails requires a lot of energy, and with high currents, high rates of rail erosion are inevitable.
Higher exit velocities are attainable with higher injection velocities. With higher injection velocities, the electrical arcing and ohmic heating between the projectile and the rails will not have as much time to heat the rail surfaces to vaporization. Thus, up to a certain point, a higher injection velocity will help minimize rail damage. It also prevents rail/projectile spot welding, which can occur at zero injection velocities and low powers on metal/metal contacts. Given the energy expenditure of accelerating the projectile electrically, and the advantages of pre-injection, it makes sense to impart as much initial velocity to the projectile as possible, and only then allow the electric action to do what it is most effective at: attaining velocities that would not be feasible with a gas injection mechanism alone.
Energy loss in a railgun is proportional to projectile momentum, and can be minimized by increasing the induction gradient. This would imply that rail guns are most efficient at accelerating light payloads. However, it has been shown experimentally that with calibers less than 18mm, the efficiency of a railgun decreases with the smaller size bores.
In 2245, after enormous amounts of money had been invested in railgun technology, a solution to the erosion problem was finally conceived by WorldSoft Laboratories. Through significant improvements in the materials and design, WorldSoft invented the first usable railgun called the Damocles. The Damocles only achieved velocity speeds of 1000m/s, and suffered a short life-cycle. Over time, the railgun still suffered magnetic field and velocity impacts. Unfortunately, after the fall of Worldsoft, advances on the Damocles came to a halt.
In 2285, over 10 years after the introduction of the EMR4000 plasma missile launcher and 60 years after the Damocles, the Federation announced a new railgun technology. Developed in the secret labs of the T9000 Starbase, the T9000 Railgun began being deployed to Federation troops. This remarkable weapon resolved several issues that plagued past railgun designs. The energy problem was resolved by using a Radon gas power source. The increase in power allowed for a manageable sized rail. Corrosion was reduced to negligible amounts by using a combination of titanium and Dachronian metals. Although the railgun is still in its infancy and costs an exorbitant amount of money to produce, it is the favored weapon of most Federation cadets.
The T9000 Railgun uses light weight titanium slugs sized perfectly to achieve the maximum muzzle velocity. The T9000 cartridge holds 26 slugs.
The railgun uses Radon power to establish the magnetic field between the rails, providing high velocity rapid-fire titanium trajectories.
Similar to the EMF4000, the T9000 uses an exhaust system to increase the life span of the weapon. Utilizing the exhaust tube, the T9000 incorporates a standard trigger mechanism for launching T9000 grenades. These grenades are activated once they hit a target, starting a built-in 3-second timer fuse before igniting.
