RE: Real life space war weaponry

Jonathan Reeves (JonathanR@mail.iclshelpdesks.com)
Fri, 12 Feb 1999 09:13:22 -0000

This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.


Content-Type: text/plain

Ever read the To the Stars trilogy by Harry Harrison? The rebel fleet in that just steams towards it's enemy, disperses a huge cloud of shrapnel and applies the retros.

Goodbye evil space armada.

-----Original Message-----
From: Spike Jones [mailto:spike66@ibm.net] Sent: 12 February 1999 07:05
To: extropians@extropy.com
Subject: Re: Real life space war weaponry

Darin Sunley wrote: 

> We've all seen the ludriciously slow moving "glowing tracer"
> turbolaser shots of Star Wars, and the only slightly better
> "phasers" and "photon torpedos" of Star Trek.

ya, the poetic license used in star trek and star wars kinda ruins it for the rest of us (by which i mean those who realize a "photon torpedo" would not rock the ship and cause the lights to flicker.) {8-[

> What do you think would be "realistic" space-based weaponry, i.e. weaponry that obeys the laws of physics that might reasonably be deployed from an interplanetary
> spacecraft with the goal of disabling/destroying another interplanetary spacecraft?

darin, i hope the right answer is "none". space travel is hard enough without having to lug weapons and shields along. if it should become necessary,
i dont see why the good old laser wouldnt suffice. spike


Content-Type: text/html
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">

Ever read the To the Stars trilogy by Harry = Harrison?
The rebel fleet in that just steams towards it's = enemy, disperses a huge cloud of shrapnel and applies the = retros.

Goodbye evil space armada.

-----Original Message-----
From: Spike Jones [mailto:spike66@ibm.net]
Sent: 12 February 1999 07:05
To: extropians@extropy.com
Subject: Re: Real life space war weaponry


Darin Sunley wrote:

> We've all seen the ludriciously slow moving = "glowing tracer"
> turbolaser shots of Star Wars, and the only = slightly better
> "phasers" and "photon = torpedos" of Star Trek.

ya, the poetic license used in star trek and star = wars kinda
ruins it for the rest of us (by which i mean those = who realize
a "photon torpedo" would not rock the ship = and cause the
lights to flicker.)    {8-[

> What do you think would be = "realistic" space-based weaponry, i.e. weaponry that obeys = the laws of physics that might reasonably be deployed from an = interplanetary

> spacecraft with the goal of disabling/destroying = another interplanetary spacecraft?

darin, i hope the right answer is = "none".  space travel is hard enough
without having to lug weapons and shields = along.  if it should become necessary,
i dont see why the good old laser wouldnt = suffice.  spike