Search results

The modern tech ideas are applicable if you're talking interplanetary warfare with no FTL. Interstellar? Um, no. If you have to worry about Δv-budgets, mass ratios, transit times, and gravity wells you are not fighting on or above planet in a neighbouring star system because just getting there...

@JagerIV, When it comes to rocket fuels which are storeable and useable at a moment's notice you don't have many good choices. Solid: Ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) or ammonium perchlorate (NH4ClO4) plus powdered aluminium and not much else. Liquid: Nitric acid (HNO3), some other very strong acid...

You might just want to destroy what's on it, at which point "nuke 'em till they glow" is an entirely reasonable course of action along the lines of a strategic bombing raid. Suppose it's something the size of Ceres and a major source of enemy starship components. A gigaton Ka-Boom will do...

In the story I'm sharing here there's an ancient power which may or may not have witnessed the Big Bang. Their smallest warships are 10-12 times as massive as the space shuttle when fully fueled and completely outclass something like the 44 million ton B5 Sharlins and Omegas to the degree of...

If the WWII-era 1.5 ton Mark 1 computer was designed for the kinds of ranges and 3D (limited to light speed) or 4D (FTL is in play) combat realistic starship battles would take place at the question wouldn't be "do we have a firing solution?" it would be "which part of the target do we want to hit?"

Fire control. If you can't estimate where your target will be when the shots get there you might as well be firing blind. A WWII-era battleship's electro-mechanical fire control systems, if designed for time to target at light-speed and starship combat, could probably bracket a target a third...

Sorta. If you're about 80% of the way to the Moon from the Earth's surface it'll take a light-speed "ping" about a second to get to you and another second for the return signal to reach where it was sent from and be processed. You've got ample time to dodge at those distances.

You should read the story I'm writing and sharing here. An ancient society older than the Sol System got dragged into a conflict with Earth due to ancient defence treaties actually does have to worry about human weapons and is trying to warn them that they're about to blow up the Sun if humanity...

A spaceship is tiny when compared to a planet and they're vastly more maneuverable than a planet side installation. Consider the mass differences: Space Shuttle: 74 tons dry and small enough for three to be displayed on an NFL football field with room to spare. Earth: 6.585 billion trillion...

BTW: Y'all should take a look at this video which shows 45 years of asteroid discovery: The largest dots in the video: - The Sun - Jupiter - Earth - Venus - Mars - Mercury - Ceres - Vesta - Pallas - Hyigaea The Moon* is not shown. It's about 2/9 the mass of Mercury and dwarfs Ceres. The...

@Atarlost I wouldn't put too much faith in armour or fortifications protecting against precision beam weapons. An engine pulled off a Vespa can generate more power than a cutting laser rated for 5/8" of steel needs. A linear accelerater used for cancer treatment is stuffed in a 3ft thick...

True. However, in a setting where space travel is easy enough that planetary invasions are on the table "he who controls the orbitals effectively controls the planet". Ground troops would logically be more of an occupation force than an invasion. They're there to make sure the locals don't...