It’s all about relative velocity. If you have a good enough targeting system, a cannon in space is great. The air resistance is very minimal, so your range is really only limited by your targeting computer.
That being said, the stuff in space mostly has thrusters and guidance to avoid obstacles, so you need to make sure there’s no time to adjust. Ideally, you’d need to fire a guided rocket to hit things so it can follow a dodging target.
A cannon has at most some 1000km/h of delta-V. If you can reach any target with that maneuver, it’s because you are lucky, and you won’t get another target.
What can one even do with a cannon in LEO, where everything is moving at 25000 km/h?
You are better making one on the ground and shooting up.
It’s all about relative velocity. If you have a good enough targeting system, a cannon in space is great. The air resistance is very minimal, so your range is really only limited by your targeting computer.
That being said, the stuff in space mostly has thrusters and guidance to avoid obstacles, so you need to make sure there’s no time to adjust. Ideally, you’d need to fire a guided rocket to hit things so it can follow a dodging target.
A cannon has at most some 1000km/h of delta-V. If you can reach any target with that maneuver, it’s because you are lucky, and you won’t get another target.