In his 1865 science fiction novel From the Earth to the Moon, Jules Verne described how three astronauts are shot to the Moon by means of a huge gun. According to Verne, the aluminum capsule containing the astronauts is accelerated by ignition of nitrocellulose to a speed of 11 km/s along the gun barrel’s length of 220 m. (a) What is the average acceleration of the capsule in the gun barrel? (b) Is that acceleration tolerable to the astronauts? A modern version of such gun for passenger-less transport into space has been proposed. In this modern version, called the SHARP (Super High Altitude Research Project) gun, ignition of methane and air shoves a piston along the gun’s tube, compressing hydrogen gas that then launches a rocket. During this launch, the rocket moves 3.5 km vertically from rest and reaches a speed of 7.0 km/s. Once launched, the rocket can fire additional boosters to gain additional speed. (c) What would be the average acceleration of the rocket within the SHARP gun? (d) How much additional speed is needed via the boosters if the rocket is to orbit Earth at an altitude of 700 km?