Railguns designs for hand held rifles and spacecraft

I'm writing a book and I want to use rail-guns for advanced space age factions in warfare.

I would like to make them as realistic as possible so I did a bit of digging myself, but most of the information is on our world level of technology, so my question is:

• What designs should the rail-guns be? I will put them into three categories size, material, and use

About size: I don't think a pistol would be practical at all, so what about a rifle? I know about the overheating problem, so what size should I use?

About material: I was thinking the shells should be Tungsten, though I know that they can shoot just about anything if encased in metals, but I'm looking for more cost effective ammunition (note: can't be any materials just found on earth like fossil fuels or gunpowder?) but the main thing is stopping the gun from blowing up so is there any elements I can use it can be as advance as you want like "nano-carbon"?

I am thinking of using a configurable power setting. Like a level one setting that would just be used against infantry and level two armoured targets, level three walls and so on; the power source is not an issue at this point.

posted almost 7 years ago

Creed Arcon‭

1 reputation 1 0 0 0