Space combat in real life

[Elimentals]

Started the threat because of discussions in another over here

Nothing new:

As a science/space nutcase I have to suspend everything I know about space to enjoy a simple Star Wars movie.

Else I would go:
What there is no sound in space!!!
What you can doge lasers, sins when?
What why do they fly like they in the atmosphere?
Erm if they accelerating like that the G's would kill em!!!!

and so on

What it basically boils down to is that space combat is nothing like what you see in the movies, from the ships to the weapons

For those that is interested here are some reading on the subject:

Space Fighters, Not
Space Warfare I - The Gravity Well
Space Warfare II - Stealth Reconsidered
Space Warfare III – 'Warships' in Space?
Space Warfare IV - Mobility
Space Warfare V: Laser Weapons
Space Warfare VI: Kinetics, Part 1
Space Warfare VII: Kinetics, Part 2 - The Killer Bus
Space Warfare VIII: Orbital Combat

Amendments:
Battle of the Spherical War Cows: Purple v Green
Further Battles of the Spherical War Cows

Ok fire away

 

[Zyraz]

To be honest I think that if you are gonna consider space war , I would think that drone ships will play a huge role for large (think planetary) destruction.

However strategic destruction (Radars and other communications , spaceport etc) will require a piloted ship simply because of the inherited latency of ranged communication.

Dodge lasers , not unless you can "see" faster than light.
A laser is a pulse of light so the only time your will see it , is when it reaches you.

Inertia dampeners is a theoretical solution to combat the frailty of a human/alien/creature`s body when subjected to high G turns and acceleration .

 

[AstroTurf]

damm you. now I am going to be reading for hours.

 

[Elimentals]

To be honest I think that if you are gonna consider space war , I would think that drone ships will play a huge role for large (think planetary) destruction.

However strategic destruction (Radars and other communications , spaceport etc) will require a piloted ship simply because of the inherited latency of ranged communication.

Dodge lasers , not unless you can "see" faster than light.
A laser is a pulse of light so the only time your will see it , is when it reaches you.

Inertia dampeners is a theoretical solution to combat the frailty of a human/alien/creature`s body when subjected to high G turns and acceleration .

If you wanna go into space for war purpose, you not gonna put humans in the craft, waste of time, money and resources. It would be simpler, faster and easier to just strap thrusters to a meteor from the asteroid belt and with some sort of computer AI controlling it, we already place computers in charge of the targeting of strategic targets, the only reason there is a pilot is to override to prevent unnecessary casualties.

We already doing this on earth with all the drones coming out, and you don't have the casualty problem in space where you need to place a human in control to prevent it. (A plane lose engines it will fall, a space rock lose engine it will just become another asteroid)

 

[Elimentals]

damm you. now I am going to be reading for hours.

Sorry, but you have to admit is dam fascinating.

I am looking for a Youtube vid I saw some time ago, a BBC documentary on the matter. Would help for people that dont wanna read a lot.

For the life of me I can not find it. Dam its buging the hell out of me, I know Michio Kaku was the presenter.

 

[PsyWulf]

Star Trek doesn't use Lasers

According to The Making of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry claimed that production staff realized that using laser technology would cause problems in the future as people figured what they could and could not do; this resulted in the move to phasers on-screen, while letting lasers be known as a more primitive weapon style.

 

[Zyraz]

Sorry, but you have to admit is dam fascinating.

I am looking for a Youtube vid I saw some time ago, a BBC documentary on the matter. Would help for people that dont wanna read a lot.

For the life of me I can not find it.

Its called the "Science of Star Wars" as far as I remember .

 

[Crusader]

If you ever have time try to read the Lost Fleet series of books by Jack Campbell. While the individual books got repetitive the series has the best and most realistic handling of space combat I've come across so far. Dogfights don't exist and at the speeds the ships move all the targeting and shooting is handled by computer since everything happens in a split second. It also deals with tactics when relativity and speed of light constraints need to be taken into account. Once you spot your enemy (due to the vastness of space and the delay of your radar etc.) it's actual position has changed immensely and you need to compensate for that.

Attacking planets are also easy. You pop into a solar system. Compute orbit of planets. Shoot loads of kinetic missiles at where the planet will be when the missiles reach the destination and move on. Any planet without superb planetary defenses will be basically helpless to defend themselves against such an attack.

 

[Kosmik]

David Webers Honor Harington series also takes a slightly different view to space combat. Obviously fiction though.

 

[Elimentals]

Watch 2001: A Space Odyssey. That's all.

Erm that only covered the silence asspect

No rail guns no real combat, just some crappy old AI that sucked at killing a human