7b64f0f2
Another take at this is from Charles Stross in Singularity Sky [2], where a whole human fleet is again destroyed by aliens like a flick of a switch.
I know these two are science fiction, but like comment, a nuke won't save the day when aliens have been forced to live in the void for the travel time and have engines capable of taking them here.
1. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23168817-the-dark-forest
2. https://www.goodreads.com/series/189931-remembrance-of-earth...
3. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/81992.Singularity_Sky
They started building it because of military paranoia. They did copy some of the design but it was to be able to accomplish the same type of mission. If I remember correctly, notably polar orbits. The west calls it a shuttle copy, I think it's probably more a design convergence.
Buran was able to fly by itself, it was boosted by modular liquid fuel rocket [2]. The book goes into details about the differences between the two and a bit of history pre-shuttle, programs like the spiral space planes. It's also humbling when you find out that people in the ~1900 thought about going to other planets [3].
[1]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1712747.Energiya_Buran [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energia [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rockets#Early_20th-...
This means for example :
- one integrated network switch/router for 18 servers; no need to buy an external cisco/juniper/whatever
- one dual power supply for the whole gang instead of 19 (18 servers + switch)
- less metal/plastic parts
We try to reuse hardware designs and software from one iteration to another when possible.
In short, we do have less "unneeded components". Equivalent designs (thinking at moonshot for example) are expensive, so to achieve same density it's more expensive to buy existing solutions than what we design & build.
You probably can get these equations by analyzing nebula composition and the type of star which was there.
Also, the type of star gives an indication of it's history.