so what stops plasma from being an effective energy weapon for use in space combat? high temperatures melt armor while the also disrupting electronic systems.
so what stops plasma from being an effective energy weapon for use in space combat?
so what stops plasma from being an effective energy weapon for use in space combat? high temperatures melt armor while the also disrupting electronic systems.
we don't really know what will be effective in space combat yet, anon. currently, all space craft are quite fragile, so any kinetic weapon will probably do an appreciable amount of damage.
>david weber is a hack
> apologies to all the hacks out there
Space plasma cannot melt steel beams.
webers ships don't use plasma, they make heavy use of x-ray and gamma ray lasers
>makes his whole combat doctrine vulnerable to a simple trick
>readers call him out on it
>n-no it just doesn't work ok!
>retcons it
Weber is a fucking hack.
>safehold series
>a baseline human soldier says that women can't be on the battlefield
>a woman beats the shit out of him
>yasssss queen slay!
>problem is that the "woman" is a Motoko Kusanagi grade synth, completely invalidating the point
Weber is a fucking hack.
>makes his whole combat doctrine vulnerable to a simple trick
which is?
>safehold series
I like it
>a woman beats the shit out of him
you didn't even read it, did you
>Safehold
How the fuck do you guys have the ability to read ten books that are well over 600 pages each and likely just action schlock? I couldn't do it, man.
I listen to audiobooks while exercising or commuting, 30 hour long book? thats nothing. A 20 book long series? thats getting better
anon, combat in space must be as cold as possible.
you are unable to get rid of heat in space.
if you suddenly start shooting with guns that make a fuckton of heat (like a god damn plasma gun as hot as the sun), the ship will collect all that heat and melt itself.
all cosmic wars will be fought by literally slinging shit at each other, until we figure out a super-effective way to vent heat.
>t. a science nerd
That's a pretty dumb take. Not the heat but your solution of "shit slinging". Here's a better idea. Use missiles. They burn their propellant outside of the ship that fires them.
t. Smarty Pants.
Dont railguns count as slinging shit? that's cooler then missiles
t. Cro magnon man
Go to PrepHole and then look for /sfg/ and ask about nuclear drives in there. I am sure you'll get your answer.
It's doesn't stay concentrated. Magnetic fields of Sun and Earth gonna curve moving plasma rays and they spead out.
What stops a laser from being effective?
It would melt a spaceship or heat it up that much shit fucks up.
>What stops a laser from being effective?
normal laser is stopped by armor, x-ray and gamma ray lasers is not
not that i dont think lasers wouldnt work, i just think plasma is neater
The smallest possible spread is given by a diffraction limited beam. Here, the spread depends on the wavelength and the smallest diameter of the beam (or waist). The equation is approximately
spread=wavelength/(pi*waist width).
Let's try to put some numbers in there. For a small, green laser, the wavelength is roughly 500 mm, and let's assume that the smallest width is at the pointer, and that it is 1 mm. This means that the spread is 0.00016 radians. Over 3000 feet, that becomes roughly half a foot, so, as this formula calculates the spread between the center and the outside of the beam, the beam is 1 foot wide.
Note that all of this is extremely approximate, but it gives an idea of the scale. The formula is also relatively straightforward, so it is easy to see that going to twice the wavelength doubles the spread, while a 10 times wider beam means 10 times the spread.
Basically, lasers lose potency over range, while projectiles maintain all their energy (in a vacuum) until they hit something.
>so what stops plasma from being an effective energy weapon for use in space combat?
to extend the weber's honoverse discussion a bit more, the fusion plants of the ships use magnetic containment for the plasma within, plasma is electrically charged, you could probably shield the ship with a magnetic field alone
Plasma is a very hot gas, it has no external border and tends to fill all available space. It's going to expand right after leaving the barrel, and the hotter it is - the faster it expands. Shooting it at a distant target in a vacuum is the same as farting at your enemy during WWI trench warfare.
E.g. the exhaust of a rocket engine is also plasma. It doesn't look like a projectile of death or a melting beam in space.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/i77EI_JwjNI
On the same note for SF using "plasma" for drive, as said by
The goal isn't to produce plasma so it propel you by magic,
Plasma is just a frictionless state the propellant take as you accelerate it backward very fast so your ship go forward.
That state does make it easier to accelerate but if you could you wouldn't want a gas that expand everywhere it can, ideally you'd want a magic material that stay packed together even as you heat it.
If your spaceship thruster is very powerful it might have some use as a weapon but it will not be a "superweapon" it will be makeshift, unpractical and only work because we expect any spaceship to be incredibly fragile.
FUCK MIDWITS... POPSCI IS FOR gayS.
MARAUDER WASN'T CANCELLED IT WAS TAKEN INTO THE BLACK... AFRL HAD COAXIAL PLASMA RAILGUNS IN THE FUCKING NINETEEN NINETIES...
BITCHES DON'T KNOW ABOUT MY TOROIDS... PLASMAS ARE VERY ELECTRICALLY CONDUCTIVE DUE TO ELECTRONS BEING UNBOUND FROM NUCLEI... IDEAL RAIL GUN AMMO. GREAT TECH... ACCELERATE UP TO DOUBLE DIGIT PERCENT C... GREAT KINETIC AND THERMAL EFFECTS... SECONDARY ELECTRICAL EFFECTS CAN HARM EVEN SHIELDED MICRO TRANSISTORS... A WEAPON TO SURPASS FUSION WARHEADS...
These book covers and titles are completely interchangeable.
Valdor is a book I'd recommend be read twice. Once you see the revelation at the end, keeping that in mind provides a much different reading experience the second time through.
its fukin impossible to buy that book anywhere at the moment. and i mean an actual book, not some pdf
Plasma not only isn't very realistic, it's also overused and boring.
You know what SHOULD get more traction? Macron cannons. Dust guns. Use electrostatic force to fire ultra high velocity microparticles at a ridiculously high fire rate to sandblast the enemy straight to hell. Also it's called a "Macron Cannon."
You know how naval engagements are going to be over distances if >100mi? well in space it will most likely be at least 10 times that distance if not significantly more, so your slow unguided plasma weapon is retarded
Low density. For any volume of plasma, it's pretty tough to transfer all that much kinetic energy.
fuck plasma
we railguns
>so what stops hot gas from being an effective energy weapon for use in the void of space combat?
Fixed that for you.
Fiction has lied to you.
"Plasma" is what gas turn into at very high temperature, it can melt some metal but plasma is actually appreciated for no longer having friction, meaning it will flow freely without sticking to bits.
Hot gas expand, and in space it doesn't take long before the shockwave no longer do damage. That's also why nuclear weapon are weaker in space.
"plasma weapon" is not the goal but an unfortunate consequences of propelling something else at a target.
Say you are generating particles to propel at your enemy via magnet, what will destroy your enemy isn't the heat, it's the sheer kinetic energy of the particles either hitting the hull or going through it to disperse their energy at very fragile component.
Those particles do get hot from the magnetic energy poured into them and that's a problem cause they push away from each other and miss the target.
Kinetic weapon or Directed energy laser/maser will make much more efficient weapons.
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacegunconvent2.php#id--Particle_Beams
appreciate the info anons, thanks for the fun thread
shiva star
casaba howitzer
refit the USS missouri with these, give her another run like she did in the 2000s
>USS missouri
fuck i meant 1990s
thats terrifying yet intriguing