Quote:
Originally Posted by dcarson
So turnover at 1h 40m gives you 42m to stop it. Should be doable if it isn't a warship with armor and point defenses.
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Earth moves a lot in the ~58 minutes between the two scenarios, meaning you'd need to have a different trajectory between the two. When the computers plug your trajectory into the appropriate calculations, they're going to spit out that the only way you can reach Earth is if you do so at a rather unsafe speed - in other words, they will detect that you're using your vessel as a weapon roughly as soon as you launch. If you start with a "safe" trajectory, you'll have to use extra time (and delta-v) to put yourself onto a hostile trajectory in order to impact the target, and they'll detect the problem as soon as you start to deviate from the safe trajectory. So, they'll have a lot of time to stop you. If they can stop you before you complete your acceleration, whatever "stop" method they use will mean you miss your target entirely (your remains will be moving too slowly to intercept). If you've completed your acceleration, simply blowing you up will still leave the target to deal with your expanding debris cloud; even a planet with sufficient atmosphere to tank said cloud would have the problem of having satellites get destroyed (which could result in a cascade). With enough time before impact, they can probably nudge you off course (then destroy you if you have the means of getting back on course) using lasers or the like to make certain you miss the target entirely.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dcarson
Lots of possibility for complacency, budget cutting and such to make it a PC problem that they have to make do.
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"You need to find a way to stop the attack before the authorities do, or their methods are going to vaporize the (VIP/MacGuffin/PC's) on board" can also work.