maneuver drive limits

[Matt Wilson]

TNE avoided T-Plates, which says to me, "TNE RAW is an alternate universe." YMMVW.

I like the idea of heplar a lot more than the bean counting of "G-turns."

 

[Matt Wilson]

Gets even better if you don't take a straight line path ... but instead take a LONGER spiraling trajectory ... so the transit takes longer ... and you can build up even MORE VELOCITY for impact ...

You went full chicxulub. Never go full chicxulub.

 

[kilemall]

Hate no thrust out in outer systems or the dark so I just ignore that 1000D business.

That kinetic impact thing goes both ways so just a single homing missile is going to break up frac C kamikazes.

 

[aramis]

Hate no thrust out in outer systems or the dark so I just ignore that 1000D business.

That kinetic impact thing goes both ways so just a single homing missile is going to break up frac C kamikazes.

Not in time to prevent them from converting that mass and velocity into atmospheric heating.

I don't need to smack the planet while intact when I've 10^17 J (100 PJ) of energy... I just have to shed that into the atmosphere. That's about 1/4 megaton TNT equivalent energy. Against an inhabited world, often, it's better for the aggressor if they break up the projectile, as you dump the energy traumatically across the whole planet. Oh, and given 18km/s (1.8e4 m/s) and E=MC²... 3.24e8 J per kilogram. 3.24e11 J per tonne. Each ×10 velocity is x100 J, so a relatively doable 3 days of speed and then jumping into the splat cone of the target world... potential intercept times can be in the seconds range.
The nasty planet cracker is find the biggest star within, say, 2J2 of target, on a J2 ship, and load cargo with an extra jump of fuel, Accelerate through edge of biggest system, then an intervening system, then jump to 100 diameters... over a week of acceleration, popping out at 100 diameters, and on an probable impact course... shatter it, you GUARANTEE at least some of it hits and dumps huge kinetic heating... A size 10 world has an exclusion of 1,600,000 km. 1.6e9 m. Sol has roughly 1e13 m of acceleration zone, d=0.5AT² so 1e13=0.5×10×T² so 5e13=T² so 7.07e7 sec… so V=AT 7.07e8 m/s just from sol outbound. so, if it jumps to the 100 diameter limit of Alpha C's inhabited world, 1.6e9/7.07e8 = about 2.2... 2 seconds from jump exit to impact.

Your missile can't get fast enough to intercept. But someone in the Sol system will be monitoring for just that course.... and have a 6G suicide shuttle to stop you. Probably have a dozen plus in various places to stop it elsewhere...

 

[whartung]

That kinetic impact thing goes both ways so just a single homing missile is going to break up frac C kamikazes.

The simple problem with that actually trying to hit something that fast. Consider something going 5000km/s will travel 5m in a microsecond. Margin of error gets very, very small trying to intercept something at the speed. Computers and hardware struggle with accuracy at the microsecond mark, much less softer things like thrusters and the like.

 

[kilemall]

The simple problem with that actually trying to hit something that fast. Consider something going 5000km/s will travel 5m in a microsecond. Margin of error gets very, very small trying to intercept something at the speed. Computers and hardware struggle with accuracy at the microsecond mark, much less softer things like thrusters and the like.

I don’t think velocity is going to be that much of a hit problem given that the kamikaze is headed to a very known target and going so fast that it’s going to not get meaningful agility maneuver.

Now a side shot would be more problematic but I’m assuming most intercepts would be from missile platforms at the planet itself thus near head on angles.

 

[whartung]

I don’t think velocity is going to be that much of a hit problem given that the kamikaze is headed to a very known target and going so fast that it’s going to not get meaningful agility maneuver.

The problem is simply margin of error. The attacker is aiming for something that's 1000's of km in diameter, not 10's of meters. 2 microseconds is 10 meters of error. Its not even "blink" and its gone. Heck, it's not even "b...." and it's gone.

You can try to inject debris into its flight path. Splash out a few thousand ball bearings and watch it incinerate itself, but you better have the course down to 0.000001 perfection. And that's just plain hard with real world tolerances.

 

[Badenov]

The problem is simply margin of error. The attacker is aiming for something that's 1000's of km in diameter, not 10's of meters. 2 microseconds is 10 meters of error. Its not even "blink" and its gone. Heck, it's not even "b...." and it's gone.

You can try to inject debris into its flight path. Splash out a few thousand ball bearings and watch it incinerate itself, but you better have the course down to 0.000001 perfection. And that's just plain hard with real world tolerances.

It's hard with TL7 tolerances, sure. At TL10, they're probably laughing at how simple that is.

 

[whartung]

At TL10, they're probably laughing at how simple that is.

Speed of light is a harsh mistress. It gets in the way of everything.

 

[kilemall]

The problem is simply margin of error. The attacker is aiming for something that's 1000's of km in diameter, not 10's of meters. 2 microseconds is 10 meters of error. Its not even "blink" and its gone. Heck, it's not even "b...." and it's gone.

You can try to inject debris into its flight path. Splash out a few thousand ball bearings and watch it incinerate itself, but you better have the course down to 0.000001 perfection. And that's just plain hard with real world tolerances.

For visualization I assume the average homing missile warhead is 6 1kg slugs, hence the CT 1d6 hits, and the rest of the warhead weight is explosive propulsion for imparting spread and kinetic acceleration even when the missile hasn’t built vee. The supplement warhead with DE is obviously a HEAT/plasma bolt/casaba howitzer analogue, my mod would be less kinetic requirement/more chance to miss. Similar with a heavy KEAP penetrator 10-30 kg warhead, more intended for no maneuver damaged ships or stations.

I use the Striker nuke warheads 15 and 25cm sized as that matches the Striker sizes for turret and bay missiles.

So probably another warhead type for this application, I suppose the frag warheads for 15 and 25cm missiles. Perhaps sand too.

 

[kilemall]

Speed of light is a harsh mistress. It gets in the way of everything.

Quantum computing says hold my drink.

 

[Badenov]

Speed of light is a harsh mistress. It gets in the way of everything.

That's still TL7 thinking. At TL4, we didn't even know about the speed of light being a limit. 6 TLs later, we've almost certainly worked it out or worked around it.

TL10 already disobeys physics as we know it with no-reaction-mass thrusters. Who's to say what other laws we thought were true at TL7 turned out to only be what we knew at the time?

 

[Condottiere]

You could always sacrifice a Scoutship, and warp it out, when the item is within jump bubble radius.