24 Jun 00:25
--The idea is a teeny bit flawed because even if we assume that such xenophobic civilizations exist, they will have just revealed their location to any other xenophobic civilizations that might be watching when they launch those missiles–and proved themselves a credible threat.
24 Jun 00:23
--The idea is that relativistic rockets can be used as deadly kinetic weapons that we can't intercept, because they arrive just after their light signature reaches us. An alien civilization fears such an attack, so it launches such weapons at any civilization that develops relativistic flight.
24 Jun 00:22
--Oh, yeah, I think you are referring to "The Killing Star", one of the guys who wrote that designed the Valkyrie antimatter rocket for interstellar missions.
24 Jun 00:20
--To kill a ship, you had to keep pumping energy into the Langston Field until it couldn't handle any more, at which point it exploded and the ship inside the field died.
24 Jun 00:19
--Yeah, there are people who think it might be like that–that your ship would be killed in one hit. That is why Niven and Pournelle had the "Langston Field" that soaked up laser and nuke hits and radiated the energy into space in the Codominium stories.
24 Jun 00:16
--there was a book about it, but i dont remember the name, in wich all alien civs always attacked first all other species they encountered, to avoid being targeted themselves
24 Jun 00:14
--yeah thinking about it, wars in space would probably be like nuclear war here, either you manage you hit first without retaliation or MAD
24 Jun 00:05
--But it is an interesting issue, we can't just assume that detection is super-easy under all circumstances. You have to have the right kind of a detector, and the fainter the signal the bigger and more delicate it will be.
24 Jun 00:03
--I don't see why we can't just deploy some drones with infrared detectors though. XD
24 Jun 00:03
--Infrared space telescopes have to be cryogenically cooled for this reason.
24 Jun 00:02
--There is a spacecraft engineer who disagree with Whinchell on heat signals being great. See, the problem is that your OWN heat interferes with seeing someone else's.
24 Jun 00:01
--Unless there is something explosive on the target ship (like an unstable fuel), it would make more sense for the ship to be torn up and left a shredded mass.
24 Jun 00:01
--and no sound either, with your enemies hundred of thousands of km away, each side playing chess with trajectories and heat signals
24 Jun 00:00
--also why shit keeps exploding in space? at least in gundam they had the decency of making the explosion purple to simulate that its a leak of fuel not combustion
24 Jun 00:00
--Yes, most movies basically recycle stuff from naval and air warfare on Earth.
23 Jun 23:58
--war in space will be completely different, also assuming it will be waged between humans with a similar technological level
23 Jun 23:41
--One of the funny things is that people always imagine mounting missiles or railguns or death ray blaster things or photon torpedoes or whatever on spaceships, but one of the deadliest things we'll have in space will be our own reaction drives.
23 Jun 23:39
--Yeah but the light will shine on and illuminate your vehicle, and you'll notice that blazing sun.
23 Jun 23:38
--Space isn't cold, either, the only way you can shed heat in space is by radiating it away, and that is not the most efficient process. So being in space is like being in a giant thermose bottle.
23 Jun 23:38
--well im not sure, keep in mind, in the void there is no light scattering
23 Jun 23:38
--Oh yes, but outside the vehicle it is always light. It isn't cold and dark like in Aliens.
23 Jun 23:37
--you could regulate the climate and light inside the colony so it doesnt matter, you could even have thematic colonies, like the caribbean one, the australian one
23 Jun 23:37
--Yeah, that would be a really cool name for a space opera type story. Endless Noon. I might use that. :-)
23 Jun 23:36
--Think about it, no planet getting in the way equals no night, ever. No cloudy days either. Endless noon, for billions of years to come. Lotsa solar energy too.
23 Jun 23:35
--One of the funny things is that people think space is cold and dark, like a perpetual night. But near a star (like we are in respect to the sun), it's actually endless noon!
23 Jun 23:34
--Oh yeah I see you guys were talking about space colonies and how it might be like in Aliens
