->       Hmmm.  Muskets were muzzle loaders as I recall.  The ones that
-> were
-> rifled were beech loaders.  I've a friend near Oak Ridge that has an
-> authentic, operational Springfield.  According to him, it wasn't a
-> very good
Whether a firearm has rifling or not has nothing to do with whether it
is breech or muzzle loaded. As a matter of fact, a muzzle loading weapon
may be more inherently accurate than a breech loader because the bullet
is pre-swaged to exactly fit the lands and grooves of the rifling.
-> rifle and couldn't achieve the velocity your speaking of.  At 100
-> yards, he couldn't hit a man sized target 8 0f 10 shots.  It had a
-> great bayonet though.
I would suggest your friend's authentic, operational Springfield may
suffer from other problems... most of these are shot out with little if
any rifling left because of the corrosive nature of black powder.
->       That's where this darned Capissi Spacecraft is so spooky.  It
-> will
-> almost re-enter the earths atmosphere for that `snap'.  That is why
-> so many are a bit concerned about using earth as the source of power
-> to shoot that contraption off to who knows where.  Let's compute 73
-> pounds of plutonium loosed in the atmosphere. (Grumble. Perfectly
-> good segue built up and we got Goliath dropping dead of shock!  You
-> know he was a Palestinian didn't you?)
The Cassini spacecraft's orbital mechanics are not "spooky". The
trajectory is known... it will NOT re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. It
will enter the Earth's gravity well, gaining momentum and "slingshot"
away BECAUSE it will not get close enough to even enter orbit about the
Earth.
As to the 73 pounds of Plutonium that you suggest might become part of
the Earth's atmosphere, that is less than the amount of PU released in 4
atmospheric tests of which there were hundreds with no apparent,
measurable adverse effects. I agree it would not be good to add more to
the atmosphere, but the risk is minimal.
... and actually, Palestine is a name derived from Philistine...
    Andrew
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