Blowing Up a Planet

[Diomedes]

Does the Third Imperium's meson technology give it the capability to completely destroy a dwarf planet? More importantly, did the Imperium have the ability to do this during the Civil War era?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Diomedes

Does the Third Imperium's meson technology give it the capability to completely destroy a dwarf planet? More importantly, did the Imperium have the ability to do this during the Civil War era?

Many orders of magnitude short in total power. They could reach the target zone but not enough "Boom!".

[ak_aramis]

A dwarf planet? Well, they could reduce it to a fine powder... but it would take a while.

Striker says that meson guns reduce to impassable dust an are in table-top cm (1cm=10m) radius equal to the USP rating. The largest TL13 Meson Gun, in HG, is code P. Noting that it goes 1-9 A-H J-N P-Z.... that should be 32cm...

At one shot per 30 sec, that means 2x4/3π(320^3) cubic meters.... about 0.274 cubic km per shot... And dwarf planets run 400 to 1000km, so let's use a nominal 500km radius peak one: 523598775 cubic km. That's 1907348633 minutes sustained fire... 3629 ship-years of fire.

so you'd need 4000 ships no smaller than about 20KTd to do it in a one-year process. the 3I COULD do it. But they are unlikely to do it.

Simply stripping the surface of the same ball...
we use the area of the hexagon enclosed by the radius, to ensure 100% surface destruction:
3141593 that 500km radius ball of rock
0.266 km^2 per shot
11808590 shots
11.23 ship-years

Doable for a sector fleet's pair of batrons in about a year. Given the cru-rons, probably reduce it to about a month - but using an entire sector fleet.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by ak_aramis

A dwarf planet? Well, they could reduce it to a fine powder... but it would take a while.

Debatable. Unless the powder reaches escape velocity, it will tend to just sit there, and since you're adding heat, it will probably eventually fuse back into rock, at least near the center of the planetoid.

[Diomedes]

What I'm looking for doesn't necessarily need to blow up the entire asteroid, just be destructive enough that taking out a major shipyard/industrial node would also destroy the city that shares the rock with it.

[Anthony]

I recommend a near-c rock. ;)

[Agemegos]

You're as funny as a rubber crutch.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by ak_aramis

A dwarf planet? Well, they could reduce it to a fine powder... but it would take a while.

Striker says that meson guns reduce to impassable dust an are in table-top cm (1cm=10m) radius equal to the USP rating. The largest TL13 Meson Gun, in HG, is code P. Noting that it goes 1-9 A-H J-N P-Z.... that should be 32cm...

At one shot per 30 sec, that means 2x4/3π(320^3) cubic meters.... about 0.274 cubic km per shot... And dwarf planets run 400 to 1000km, so let's use a nominal 500km radius peak one: 523598775 cubic km. That's 1907348633 minutes sustained fire... 3629 ship-years of fire.

so you'd need 4000 ships no smaller than about 20KTd to do it in a one-year process. the 3I COULD do it. But they are unlikely to do it.

Simply stripping the surface of the same ball...
we use the area of the hexagon enclosed by the radius, to ensure 100% surface destruction:
3141593 that 500km radius ball of rock
0.266 km^2 per shot
11808590 shots
11.23 ship-years

Doable for a sector fleet's pair of batrons in about a year. Given the cru-rons, probably reduce it to about a month - but using an entire sector fleet.

Why do I hear the voice of Han Solo in my mind commenting on a similar concept with a similar analysis...? :lol:

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Debatable. Unless the powder reaches escape velocity, it will tend to just sit there, and since you're adding heat, it will probably eventually fuse back into rock, at least near the center of the planetoid.

Escape velocity on ceres is 509m/s. and is about 460km radius.

Note that the meson gun generates high energy subatomic particle decay within the target; it's likely to generate heat, but it's also likely to generate a lot of kinetic energy. But further, most meson armed ships will be equipped with nuclear missiles. Drop a nuke in every 7th shot, and likely, you can probably clear the microfine dust the meson gun leaves.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by ak_aramis

Escape velocity on ceres is 509m/s. and is about 460km radius.

Note that the meson gun generates high energy subatomic particle decay within the target; it's likely to generate heat, but it's also likely to generate a lot of kinetic energy. But further, most meson armed ships will be equipped with nuclear missiles. Drop a nuke in every 7th shot, and likely, you can probably clear the microfine dust the meson gun leaves.

I don't know...there's no blast wave. The radiation from the nuke would certainly apply pressure to the dust, but there's going to be a lot of dust, and the nukes are also adding heat to the mix, too.