11–20 of 26 posts
lets hope non-existent.
we already have militarization of space, plenty of satellites up there, are armed to the teeth. The second they find anything important up there, you'll have space shuttles armed to the teeth.
This analysis is grossly naive. It notes the importance of kinetic kill in space battles but ignores utterly that the nature of the battlefield depends greatly on the nature of technology. As increasingly advanced propulsion technology makes feasible the next higher level of closing velocities (from 10-30km/s with chemical propulsion, to 50km/s with Nuclear Thermal Rockets and such-like, to 100km/s, 1000km/s and beyo…
- light speed; being 0.5 seconds away from the enemy moving at orbital speeds means that even the slightest change in direction would put you quite far from where he thinks you are. I'd guess in-combat ships would continuously change direction by minute amounts.
- old fashioned "see the bullet 1000 km away and dodge it".
This leaves one obvious option: autonomous scatter pack missiles. They would get as close to the target as possible, then split into several parts so as to be harder to pick up by laser or kinetic defenses. Payload could be anything, but i'd guess delayed explosives might do a fair amount of damage.
I stopped reading this article about two paragraphs in because it makes the mistake of thinking that a space battle would necessarily happen in human timescales. A real space battle barring some silly fictional constraint (You can't hyperspace jump too close! The shields are just holding out! Can't fire from cloak! Etc etc) is going to be the perfect embodiment of warfare as we know it now: months of boredom punctuat…
I think a real space battle is likely to be too expensive to make a good narrative: in the status quo, major military powers in the United States avoid naval battles because the ships that matter cost billions, they can only afford to field a dozen of them, and they have a huge likelihood of dying to the first hit by a much cheaper missile. In space, the ships will cost tens or hundreds of billions, no nation state w…
lets hope non-existent.
we already have militarization of space, plenty of satellites up there, are armed to the teeth. The second they find anything important up there, you'll have space shuttles armed to the teeth.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think a real space battle is likely to be too expensive to make a good narrative: in the status quo, major military powers in the United States avoid naval battles because the ships that matter cost billions, they can only afford to field a dozen of them, and they have a huge likelihood of dying to the first hit by a much cheaper missile. In space, the ships will cost tens or hundreds of billions, no nation state w…
The cost/benefit equation of war has changed drastically since the Romans kept themselves in a perpetual state of conflict in order to fund the republic with its spoils. Especially in this century, the cost of war implements has increased rapidly relative to the possible benefits from engagement.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think a real space battle is likely to be too expensive to make a good narrative: in the status quo, major military powers in the United States avoid naval battles because the ships that matter cost billions, they can only afford to field a dozen of them, and they have a huge likelihood of dying to the first hit by a much cheaper missile. In space, the ships will cost tens or hundreds of billions, no nation state w…
The cost/benefit equation of war has changed drastically since the Romans kept themselves in a perpetual state of conflict in order to fund the republic with its spoils. Especially in this century, the cost of war implements has increased rapidly relative to the possible benefits from engagement.
I stopped reading this article about two paragraphs in because it makes the mistake of thinking that a space battle would necessarily happen in human timescales. A real space battle barring some silly fictional constraint (You can't hyperspace jump too close! The shields are just holding out! Can't fire from cloak! Etc etc) is going to be the perfect embodiment of warfare as we know it now: months of boredom punctuat…
I think a real space battle is likely to be too expensive to make a good narrative: in the status quo, major military powers in the United States avoid naval battles because the ships that matter cost billions, they can only afford to field a dozen of them, and they have a huge likelihood of dying to the first hit by a much cheaper missile. In space, the ships will cost tens or hundreds of billions, no nation state w…
Also, with ships punching a hole in the bottom is enough to sink one - most ships hit by a one-shot-kill missile take a few minute to do down because they're sinking, not exploding. In space, this doesn't exist. You have fuel tanks and engines, but those can be safely put at the back of the ship, and in a battle you'll just rotate your ship so that the front faces the enemy.
I'd say a bigger problem would be time to target, in one of two ways: - light speed; being 0.5 seconds away from the enemy moving at orbital speeds means that even the slightest change in direction would put you quite far from where he thinks you are. I'd guess in-combat ships would continuously change direction by minute amounts. - old fashioned "see the bullet 1000 km away and dodge it". This leaves one obvious opt…
As for missiles, I really don't like the idea. If I were tasked with building a 22-nd century warship, I would put a few hundred automated anti-missile lasers everywhere, which would fry the missiles before any of them get close enough to darken the hull.
Particle-beam weapons especially, but also anything carried by a ship that generates significant energy that isn't thrust, is going to generate a lot of waste heat, due to those blasted laws of thermodynamics. Where does all that heat go?
Yes, space is very, very, cold. But vacuum is about as close as you can get to an ideal thermal insulator, so if you want your imaginary warship to be spamming giant lasers like a Gradius boss, you're going to need some way to rapidly dispose of heat before your entire ship cooks like a P4 with no heat sink.