1.1 Atmosphere transit study

This the first item on the critical path. Completion is needed to set bounds for other design tasks. The goal of this task is to determine the energy needed to exit the atmosphere after the projectile has exited the cannon. The projectile must exit the cannon with enough energy to pass through the atmosphere and still have a residual velocity that exceeds the earth's escape velocity (or there abouts) when the projectile enters outer space. The task also need to address the type of nose cone that would be needed to allow the projectile to survive the transit. In the worst case it could be assumed that the projectile would lift the entire column of air above it to escape velocity; this should provide an upper bound to the energy for the process and provide some guidance of what the velocity the projectile must have when it leaves the cannon. The design constraints for the nose cone would provide inputs for the size and shape of the projectile.