On Oct 1, 2004, at 12:42 PM, Lars Jensen wrote:
The concept of *unlimited* missiles (however fun) is far-fetched.
Not at all, you just synthesize them on the fly using a smart polyalloy
nanomaterial. You have a tank of this just like gas, allowing
practically
unlimited rounds.
That would certainly be one solution that trades reload speed for
adaptability. I can imagine a system in which some 'material' is kept
in a 'super-saturated' condition, then injected into a magnetic bottle
where it crystallizes into the shape of a bullet or missile. The
'opening' on the bottle would inject the 'bullets' into a rail-gun type
arrangement for firing.
Given either of these 'build-on-the-fly' systems, you would
automatically gain a 'speed vs.power' tradeoff. If you rapid fire, the
system only has time to "build" a small bullet, but it would be fast.
If you fire at a slower rate, the system has time to build a larger
bullet that'll do more damage against capital ships and ground targets.
But in either case, you still wouldn't have "unlimited" rounds unless
you can somehow harness space-borne hydrogen a-la Bussard Ramscoop, and
use the hydrogen to make your material. You would eventually run out of
whatever material you had stored in your 'tank'.
I suppose you COULD have the nanites use the bottle material for
their construction, but that would lead to your ship mysteriously
falling apart as you continue firing!! :) And this would be a lot worse
than Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during the Super Bowl!!
In any case, you still can't get something from nothing, even with
whiz-bang modern nano-tech. The same amount of mass would have to be
carried; whether as material (bullets in a magazine), or as some sort
of
uber-gas that nanites can use to construct the bullets on-demand.
But there is no reason why you cannot apply this to AI-guided laser
cannons...
I prefer the missile approach because I find it very fun to see the
missile
streak off, its path bending as it pursues the target. I can also
switch to
target-cam, and watch my prey break off his attack and go into evasive
maneuvers. (Sims of modern aircraft do all this, it's just too hard to
get
good at them.)
The downside is that you don't get instant gratification like you do
with
bullets or lasers. That's why I proposed a "continuum" of missiles, you
could shoot a hyper-fast one that would almost be like a laser pulse,
but
you wouldn't have to learn a new control system.
Here's a question: why are there never backwards-pointing missiles?
Seems
like a good way to discourage close pursuit.
Actually, there are. Why do you think the Federation arms its
starships with aft photon torpedo launchers? :) Plus, if you look at
the design drawing for NCC 1701D, they have phasers aft, too. (IIRC,
they're mounted on a strip under the engineering hull near where the
warp-nacelle pylons join the hull.) And I'm pretty sure even the
original NCC 1701 had aft-firing phasers as well, though I don't
remember any episode in which they were fired.
Also, the rebel speeders used in "Star Wars V:Empire Strikes Back" on
Hoth had a rear gunner position.
lj
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William H Squires Jr
wsquires at satx dot rr dot com dot nospam <- remove the .nospam
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