Re:Essay on Realistic Space Combat
by JohnBooty on Friday June 13, 2014 @01:26PM
(#7889900)
> But if you have active engines
Maybe the "stealth" weapons of space combat look a lot like blimps.
They use big, cold, dark tanks of compressed gas for thrust. No combustion; just spraying compressed gas for propulsion/steering until they're close enough to the enemy target.
Then and only then, they activate active engines (or fire missiles with active engines) for the attack.
I'm not sure if those physics remotely work. I guess you could at least get up to a few thousand km/hour with a decently big enough tank of compressed gas in space, when you don't have friction or drag to worry about.
Maybe the "stealth" weapons of space combat look a lot like blimps.
They use big, cold, dark tanks of compressed gas for thrust. No combustion; just spraying compressed gas for propulsion/steering until they're close enough to the enemy target.
Then and only then, they activate active engines (or fire missiles with active engines) for the attack.
I'm not sure if those physics remotely work. I guess you could at least get up to a few thousand km/hour with a decently big enough tank of compressed gas in space, when you don't have friction or drag to worry about.