Michael Lorrey wrote:
> booster for a ballistic strike on Mars is a far more difficult mission
> than a normal ICBM. I doubt they'd get any better than 10-30 km
Sure, and that's why you'd put a magnetic plasma sail or a plasma
drive to the nuke, which would guide it into target with neurosurgical
precision. Of course, one would want to minimize the radar and drive
signatures, and sending a hail of them warheads to saturate the defense
capabilities.
Of course, a lot can be done with Fear and Loathing parked in orbit.
We're still trapped in planetocentric thinking here, the firepower
of a 100 km space rock turned into hardware is quite formidable. Even
if 95% of the metals are turned into solar sails and photovoltaics/phased
array generators, that's a lot of even reflected solar power. Then there
are lasers (space is ideal for a monster FEM with a beam circling
around the planet), neutral and charged particle beams, (antimatter)
pellet accelerators, and the like.
Given a little setup time, locally, no one can outgun you. Unless of course
you insist playing sitting duck at the bottom of the gravity well. Spreading
out as far as possible while grabbing as many resources as possible is certainly
a fitter strategy.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:56:36 MDT