Impact Laboratory

ISP has five launchers (or "guns") capable of launching projectiles into targets for impact experiments.

• Two single stage, light gas guns capable of achieving projectile velocities up to 1.5 km/s (about 0.93 miles per second). One of these gas guns can be used for performing combined compression and shear loading experiments.
  
• Two powder guns capable of achieving impact velocities up to 2.4 km/s (about 1.49 miles per second) are also used routinely. One of these powder guns is used exclusively for X-Ray Diffraction measurements.
  

With these gas and powder guns, samples can be compressed to stresses approaching 100 GPa or 1 Mbar.

To achieve higher stresses (1–2 Mbar and above), a two stage, light gas gun is used that can reach an impact velocity of up to 6 km/s (or about 3.73 miles per second). This two-stage gun is on long-term loan from Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

	Before & After: Projectiles for the 4-inch gun			Target