What Weapons work in Space?

[L. Arkwright]

I have a book called to the stars by Harry Harrison. In it two ships have to do battle. They use, of all things, cannon balls. Their computers sit and work out where the target will be in relation to where they are at that time and fire in that direction. In a timeline where space travel has developed realistically (IE no anti projectile fields, debris sheilds etc) ten or twenty metal alloy 12 inch diameter projectiles travelling at mach 1 are gonna seriously do you some damage.

[libelula]

Hmmm something you said caught my attention. No debris sheilds. Realistically I would think it would not be even in this day in age that difficult to imagine and create sheilds for debris. I would think it would be a nessesity for any long term space mission. Yes its true astroid belts are not like in star wars they are more like open star clusters spread apart. But for meteors and other random rocks and magnetic interferance some sort of sheild would have to be in play.
Does exotic matter have same properties as anti-matter?

ps: I know that fusion power isn't perpetual energy. But it was the closest thing I can think of and it would only need to last for a few million years. It was in this article I saw where if humans set their minds to it we could colonize the galaxy in like four million years. Just go from planet to planet in wheely space ships like the Gundum colonies. Provided we don't run into hostile alien species. Which if you think about the possibility is very possible.

[Rik_the_Riff]

As it stands, unless debris is magnetic, it can't be repulsed. The only debris shields you could get would be thick armour on the ships. And some asteroid belts can get quite dense - planet graveyards + the like. Exotic matter isn't like anti-matter (actually, we don't know this for certain - no-one really knows the properties of exotic matter, as it's harder to get hold of than anti-matter).

On the hostile aliens thing; I don't think that if we develop the technology with which to explore the galaxy, hostile aliens will have technology to match ours, because I think that beyond a certain point, you can't advance without some sort of cultural bias against hostility - I think we're getting there (maybe in fifty years or so, society will collapse and whatever is built on top of it will learn from our mistakes).

Just a thought

Rik

[ray gower]

Actually we can repulse quite a range of non-iron materials with electro-magnetic fields.
The Cern test ring for instance contains its anti-hydrogen atom in a magnetic field and it is technology that is starting to find a place in industry for filtration of dust.
Not counting what they do with it in hospitals.

Nor is armour plating and/or funny forcefields the only protection. A high gloss finish will provide protection from lasers, energy absorbing coatings against pure energy beams, more physical weapons are already countered by reactive armour and kevlar.

Ultimately cannonballs could well be the most cost effective. Punching a good hole in a vessel is always going to be the simplest. The forces inside the enemy (i.e. air pressure) will then be helping not resisting

[libelula]

Never under estimate the power of duct tape.
On a more serious thought puncturing a hole in someones ship is a good effective way to damage them. Cannon balls or otherwise. But even such things can be helped. By simple closing off of a decompressed area would do the trick or instant repair. They have nano technology that can prevent stains on kaki pants I'm sure its not such a far cry to say that nanobots could be designed to repair holes as they happen. Unless the holes are gaping monsters the size of a dump truck then sealing off the area would be the best option. Works on a sub.

[Dave]

Originally posted by ray gower
The electro-magnetic rail gun solution has been tested for possible use on the Royal Navy's new aircraft carrier as well as by the American Navy for point defence of ships. So the technology works there.

I didn't realise this before, but you can actually get recoiless gauss hand-guns. This Russian site has some:

http://www.pskovinfo.ru/coilgun/indexe.htm

They have another advantage to the assasin of being silent. We can always find new ways of killing each other!

[libelula]

The site even shows you how to build a table top coilgun.

[Dave]

I've found this interesting site: Space Weapons Earth Wars concerning a book on research carried out by RAND.

[Rik_the_Riff]

An oversight.....

In the discussion about how recoil is a problem, we missed one simple, already-existing solution; the self-propelled missile. All you have to do is pop one out of a hatch, press the ignition and bam - no recoil, just one payload of unpleasantness on its way to meet Joe enemy. Then we jump to radio-controlled missiles (or whatever you'd use in space - was never quite clear on radio in vacuum). Just imagine - you could do a psychological thriller about a gunner who went insane from VR-piloting missiles and constantly crashing on the side of ships.... *runs off with ideas again*

just a thought,

Rik

[Dave]

I don't think anyone has mentioned the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) as a weapon itself. Such pulses are produced as a by-product of some nuclear explosions, but they can be produced on their own. Magnetic fields, suitably increased in power and directed at a spacecraft, would cripple it. It isn't just something out of 'The Matrix' they have been used already:

The E Bomb

Such intense magnetic fields also have biological effects too. Although not lethal, they affect brain impulses.

Rik_the_Riff -- I now have a new theory about the Reavers from 'Firefly'. They were subjected to EMPs and had their brains scrambled. What do you think?

[Dave]

It seems that although the 'Star Wars' programme may be dead, the weaponizing of space using projectile weapons is still an option:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/c...?story_id=3119

The “rods from God”, when used together with satellite photography, sounds like very bad science fiction, but it could be a reality soon.

[Trouble]

The U.S Army is developing a rail-gun to replace the conventional projectile weapons in armored vehicles (Tanks). Currently (publicly anyway) the Weapon takes up a large amount of space, actually the problem is the power required to launch the projectile. Railguns are nice because of course they are silent, no smoke, and very little recoil. They can be built now, as a matter of fact, in space it would be easier (lots of power from the sun). Gunpowder and cordite for that matter are oxidizers, but remember if you are not braced when you fire a gun in space you are going in the opposite direction that you fired (equal and opposite reaction doncha know). The problem I think with relying on the radiation from nukes to harm people is that any spacecraft is necessarily going to be hardened against radiation, and an EMP can be defeated by a farraday cage. Personally I love the kinetic projectiles. You have a lot of momentum in space, impart that into a depleted uranium (really, really dense) slug, pull away, and fling it at your target. Should make a really really big hole.

[The Ace]

I went into history and mucked about with two ideas;
Longgun= 2 assault rifles back-to back, the rear one firing a frangible counterweight to counter the recoil (Davis Gun).
Spigot gun works on spigot-mortar principle to reduce (but not eliminate ) recoil.
Both later improved by being fitted with a tapered bore.

[Joel007]

Asimov has written my favorite space battles. Long periods of waiting (and maths), followed by short periods of excitement. Followed by long periods of being dead.

[Marky Lazer]

One of the most viable weapons in space is a piece of paper to make paper cuts.