How do spaceship-mounted railguns not destroy the ships firing them?

And I'm not talking about the wimpy 32"‰MJ kind we have in the real world, I'm talking about the superweapon kind. Anyone familiar with Knights of Sidonia and their flagship's Heavy Mass Cannons will know what I'm talking about (https://youtube.com/watch?v=D1GdoUDBsaE)

This is less of a "how it's done" question and more of a "am I understanding this right" question, because my rudimentary understanding of physics tells me that if your spaceship is firing a railgun projectile with megatons or gigatons of kinetic energy behind it, recoil from the weapon should also be destroying you as well as your target. Whatever asteroid you cobbled your ship together out of probably isn't going to survive that kind of abuse unless it's made from adamantium.

Or am I wrong? I get the sneaking suspicion there's some fundamental part of how a railgun works that I'm either ignorant of or don't properly understand. Can anyone help clarify this for me?

posted about 8 years ago

Z.Schroeder‭

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