09-23-2018, 05:28 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: [Spaceships] Proposal for building missiles as spaceships
I generally think that the missile rules are adequate as they are. If you want to make a series of AKVs though, feel free, as they can also carry missiles. For example, a SM+4 AKV can reasonably carry 10 major missile batteries, each equipped with 5 16cm missiles, which translates to 50 16cm missiles. Now, it is probably not doing much traveling, but a SM+10 AKV carrier could carry 300 of them without difficulty, meaning that it could potentially launch 3,000 16cm missiles every turn when all of its AKVs are deployed. Good luck dealing with that much hate.
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09-23-2018, 10:05 PM | #12 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [Spaceships] Proposal for building missiles as spaceships
Depends on what systems the missile already has. If it has any volatile systems, a pretty simple mechanism should be enough to blow up said system. HEDM fuel works for TL9 missiles, and above TL 9 a small bit of antimatter (not enough to count as an antimatter warhead, but enough to break the missile apart) might be an option. At TL8 and lower, I think you're pretty much stuck wasting some cargo space on explosives, although how much is needed would be something to consider (a missile that's designed to fragment might require only a tiny amount of high explosive - compared to the missile's total mass - to break apart).
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09-24-2018, 10:22 AM | #13 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [Spaceships] Proposal for building missiles as spaceships
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Also, at TL10 such an antimatter charge requires a 100mm warhead which probably weighs about 5 lbs. 6Dx4 is the effect of 4 lbs of TNT so antimatter is literally an inefficient way to destroy inorganic devices. the gamma rays antimatter produces just shoot right through. If you wonder, At TL7 and 8 space launching missiles as used at KSC do have self-destructs for safety but they consist of det cord placed around the inside of the hull and probbaly the more solid other components. This would be one of those situations where contact explosives do get maximum damage so weight does not have to be large in terms of a sizable vehicle.
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Fred Brackin |
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09-24-2018, 11:01 AM | #14 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: [Spaceships] Proposal for building missiles as spaceships
Antimatter explosions also do not react the way that GURPS portrays them. Only the positron-electron reactions produce pure gamma ray emissions, larger particles (protons and neutrons) and atoms produce much more complex reactions. The pion, kaon, and muon mix that comes from combining protons and antiprotons would have...odd explosions.
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09-24-2018, 11:16 AM | #15 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [Spaceships] Proposal for building missiles as spaceships
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Though as long as we're beign persnicketly about this there is the case where anti-protons are energeticaly propeled into large nuclei like uranium. That blows the whole nucleus apart and gets you energetic nuclear fragments that end up as heat and many more neutrons than regular fission. This is what the so-called "antimatter warheads" in Spaceships are actually doing. They're using antimatter to make better fission bombs. Antimatter technology that isn't superscience is limited to just a few specialized uses..
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Fred Brackin |
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09-24-2018, 11:51 AM | #16 | |
Join Date: May 2010
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Re: [Spaceships] Proposal for building missiles as spaceships
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1) Their performance as given in Spaceships 3 makes little sense—you can get them with a rocket that's engines and fuel and nothing else, but that leaves you with no room for e.g. a nuclear warhead. 2) More importantly, a 4-ton missile is no harder to destroy with point defense than a ~130-lb. missile. This makes the heavier missiles rather useless. This wildly distorts things if you seriously try to optimize warship designs. |
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09-24-2018, 12:29 PM | #17 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [Spaceships] Proposal for building missiles as spaceships
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A careful study of UT makes you wonder if really gigantophiliac tech serves a lot of purpose. The 100 mm Tactical Missile is extremely potent in many uses with even simple warheads and it can carry a 1 kiloton nuclear warhead. Actually there is a line in Spaceships 1 for 100mm missiles carrying 100 kt warheads at the right TL.
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Fred Brackin |
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09-24-2018, 12:53 PM | #18 | |
Join Date: May 2010
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Re: [Spaceships] Proposal for building missiles as spaceships
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09-24-2018, 01:56 PM | #19 | |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: [Spaceships] Proposal for building missiles as spaceships
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Decay times are tricky due to the energy levels. Many of the particles are moving at near c, so they take a longer objective time to decay that they would if they were standing still. For example, a charged pion lasts 26 ns but, when traveling at near c, it might experience a 20:1 time dialation, meaning that the objective time for decay is 520 ns. At near c, 520 ns means the pion travels 156 m before decaying into a muon/antimuon. Muons/antimuons in turn, last 2 microseconds, turning into 40 microseconds at near c, meaning that they travel 12 km before decaying into electrons/positrons. |
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09-24-2018, 06:36 PM | #20 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [Spaceships] Proposal for building missiles as spaceships
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