Have you ever wanted to launch something into space, but it’s always been too expensive or just too complicated? We’ve all had that problem at some point in our lives, but we’ve never been able to do anything about it – until now. Richard Graf of Cochrane, Ontario has built what he calls the Starfire space cannon, an eight-inch bore, 45-foot long, multi-chambered artillery piece that he hopes will ultimately be used to fire small objects into orbit.
Sending objects into space doesn’t always have to be an expensive and complex task conducted exclusively by filthy rich entrepreneurs or governments. Sometimes all you need is a determined Canadian engineer, a backyard, and a Kickstarter campaign – at least that’s what Richard Graf is hoping. Graf built a huge, powerful “gun” in his backyard that’s capable of shooting small payloads on a suborbital trajectory. Now he’s trying to use crowdfunding to make the project a reality, which is a smart move considering that the Internet generally enjoys funding ridiculously cool projects like this.