All Questions
Tagged with spaceships space-warfare
32
questions
11
votes
10
answers
3k
views
Engines capable of surviving a highly destructive space battle
Context: It is set 50 000 years from "now" in no-FTL interstellar setting. The idea is that active defences and armor of spacecrafts have obscenely advanced to the point that any projectile ...
- 483
7
votes
3
answers
664
views
Interception of missiles in space combat
How to approach this problem!
Numerically. Trying to find some closed form equation to spit things out is extremely difficult, especially in the face of how well this lends itself to numeric methods. ...
- 327
5
votes
6
answers
3k
views
Field Promotion to Captain [closed]
In a future space navy universe that is heavily based on modern wet navies, would it be acceptable for a vessel XO (rank of Commander) to be field promoted to Captain from a single Fleet Admiral?
To ...
- 1,031
5
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Binary system travel time for war
To set the stage, 2 opposing groups exist in the binary Alpha Centauri system. The 2 stars have a roughly 80 year orbit that brings them as close at 11 AU together and as far as 36. A ship at a 1g ...
- 1,031
7
votes
2
answers
394
views
Ideal materials for the outer layer of a whipple shield
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whipple_shield
What I'm looking for is the best possible materials for the outer layer of a whipple shield. From what I understand, the outer layer turns a hypervelocity ...
- 697
5
votes
7
answers
2k
views
When are Turreted Railgun better than Spinally-Mounted Railguns?
When and why are spinally-mounted railguns superior to turreted railguns for space combat? Is it a power issues(longer barrels could probably be mounted spinally, and the longer barrels might allow ...
- 831
2
votes
4
answers
150
views
XO of a naval cruiser leads an internal investigation
In a future space navy setup, a Long Duration Mission cruiser experiences a mysterious death while in deep space. A member of the crew mysteriously dies while at their station and causes a series of ...
- 1,031
13
votes
8
answers
1k
views
If stealth in space doesn't work, how might you hide?
While there have been numerous arguments about ways of actually pulling off stealth in space, what I'm interested in is the scenario in which you can't conceal your presence in the conventional sense ...
- 5,165
3
votes
3
answers
485
views
In space is it better to use cannons instead of railguns?
A problem in space is a lot of the time heat dissipation. Another big problem is if you are set off course by the forces that the gun shooting inflicts on your spaceship.
For the same speed and ...
- 793
2
votes
5
answers
724
views
Black hole minefields
A civilization has developed black hole guns and Hawking Radiation stabilizers while warring with other civilizations in their stellar neighborhood. Currently, they can create black holes up to 1000 ...
- 1,009
1
vote
1
answer
247
views
Should Orbital Bombardment be Considered a War Crime? [closed]
One of the most common tactic in realistic interstellar war is the tried and true orbital bombardment. The victor is often the one who holds the high ground, so it make sense to take the ultimate ...
- 2,333
2
votes
3
answers
145
views
Science-based WMD styled weapons? [closed]
I've been thinking about possible super weapons for a little while now, but I'm not really sure of any ideas that could fit into a semi-realistic setting. One idea I had was firing out a slug of ...
12
votes
8
answers
3k
views
Is it possible to blind a spaceship/space warship?
Stealth isn't possible in space, but what if you just shine a laser in their eyes and make a whole lot of noise somewhere else?
The situation is this: A shuttle full of pirate marines must dock to a ...
- 767
23
votes
13
answers
5k
views
What are most likely to be the first space weapons?
I'm trying to write a mostly realistic space story, and kind of hit a wall when it came to weaponry, so here's the question:
What would be the first weapons to be put on a spacecraft? Due to physics ...
- 5,710
0
votes
2
answers
174
views
How one should use the reality of realistic space combat as a world foundation? [closed]
many believe that space combat as it'll actually be instead of what you see in star wars is not exciting. with the show, the expanse for example, which made an effort to be true to reality, i heard it ...
- 1,642