Re: (TFT) please help (OT?)

[Mark Tapley <mtapley@swri.edu>]

At 8:28 -0500 11/9/11, TFT Digest wrote:
> Space travel thoughts all... Mr T! I'm looking in your direction!

	Sounds like the rest of the list has a lot better ideas than 
I for gaming versions of space combat.

	For "realism" I have a few thoughts.

	Transportation breaks down between "chemical" "nuclear" and "magic".

"Chemical" - what we have now. Limited to a few 10's of km/s and then 
only with huge fuel/mass ratios, so orbital mechanics is a big deal. 
You pretty much have to figure out how to let gravity and inertia 
take you where you want to go, and use your few km/s to get you set 
up properly for that to (eventually) happen. That's more or less the 
equivalent of sailing ships for transoceanic voyages - it'll take a 
long time and you are more or less at the mercy of currents and winds.

"Nuclear" - next generation, includes a pretty good range of 
possibilities up to 100's of km/s but all rely on getting a bunch 
more energy out of your power source than you could hope to get by 
chemical reactions. This is more or less the equivalent of steam 
ships and diesel ships. You can set a schedule and pretty much keep 
to it.

"Magic" - Star Trek/Star Wars, you have some sort of drive that makes 
space look like nothing. This would be more or less the equivalent of 
a modern jetliner for a transoceanic voyage. The water (representing 
"normal space") is no longer really relevant, although still visible; 
you are moving so far "above" it that it's just a pretty view; sea 
state, sargasso weed, the once-crucial currents and winds, all no 
longer signify (unless/until your drive breaks).

	At some point, relativity gets involved and you start having 
to crank in time dilation, redshift/blueshift, and similar effects. 
At some point, very fast (relative to you) dust particles hitting you 
become fatal projectiles; likewise normal light photons blue-shifted 
up to the gamma radiation range. Apparently, "magic" drives overcome 
both of these effects and probably many others.

	Whatever "magic" drives do to bust physics (and note, physics 
would tell you there is simply no way to travel 600 mph over an ocean 
- the waves would shred you even if your ship could survive), the 
weapons used will depend heavily on that. As has been pointed out, a 
laser is pretty useless against a ship that moves faster than light, 
no matter how powerful the laser is. So combat is a little bit of a 
wild card. Missiles make more sense than beams, imho.

	I'm not sure whether it'll trap your thinking into an 
unproductive rut, but the sailing ships analogy above can be 
stretched other ways, as well. For example, one of the ISS's 
functions is to study the effect of prolonged weightlessness on human 
physiology; c.f. scurvy in the early days of sailing ships.

	Hope this helps! Plenty more babble where that came from, 
just let me know what you want.

	I note that this is sliding possibly off-topic for this list; 
if other readers wish, let me know and I can go to private mails.
--
						- Mark     210-379-4635
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Large Asteroids headed toward planets
inhabited by beings that don't have
technology adequate to stop them:

				Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.
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