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Possible way to take out the OBS

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Possible way to take out the OBS
Post by msmitsc   » Thu Feb 18, 2016 5:35 pm

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Has anyone thought of reflecting the laser defense system of the OBS back on it. All it would take would be laser quality mirrors set up in the X,Y Z axis. Released in an orbit that would bring them close enough to trigger the defense lasers, this would result in any laser fired at the reflectors being sent right back to the source.

Of course this action could cause the system to wake up what ever is sleeping under the early.

Another problem is that even if the OBS is damaged into a nonworking state. The orbit of the entire system could decay leading to an uncontrolled MASSIVE strike on the surface.

So my suggestion is that OWL constructs a swarm of these reflectors to have on standby to be released into orbit take out the OBS if needed for a last ditch defense.
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Re: Possible way to take out the OBS
Post by Joat42   » Fri Feb 19, 2016 10:41 am

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And if it also has missiles and/or projectile weapons? What then?

---
Jack of all trades and destructive tinkerer.

Anyone who have simple solutions for complex problems is a fool.
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Re: Possible way to take out the OBS
Post by Randomiser   » Fri Feb 19, 2016 1:10 pm

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msmitsc welcome to the forums!

Neat idea about the mirrors, but I kinda guess Joat42 is right, if it's as easy as that to avoid the lasers (and anything you imagine can be coming up in the mirrors' shadow, then the OBS is bound to have defensive missiles as well.
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Re: Possible way to take out the OBS
Post by phillies   » Fri Feb 19, 2016 1:14 pm

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Randomiser wrote:msmitsc welcome to the forums!

Neat idea about the mirrors, but I kinda guess Joat42 is right, if it's as easy as that to avoid the lasers (and anything you imagine can be coming up in the mirrors' shadow, then the OBS is bound to have defensive missiles as well.


Ignoring the question of whether or not the defense is lasers only, I an reminded of a laser mirror I saw 40 years ago. I was solid titanium with a coating of some sort. This was presumably a rear mirror. I was full of 1" diameter pipes through which cold water was forced at very high pressure as a cooling arrangement. Oh, it had one more hole all the way through an inch or two of titanium, the one burned by the reflection of the laser beam toward the front of the system.
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Re: Possible way to take out the OBS
Post by Louis R   » Fri Feb 19, 2016 3:19 pm

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Not to mention that the lasers in question are most probably X-ray or EUV devices - longer wavelengths simply don't generate damage fast enough to be useful outside a sub-orbital ballistic environment, where the target doesn't maneuver and you can _take_ 3 minutes to burn through the skin. [Assuming that they would in that situation, which always struck me as wildly optimistic.] One of the reasons why these wavelengths work is that you essentially don't get specular reflection from a surface, except at very low grazing angles, and even then the reflectivity is a long way from 1. Not only would your mirrors probably not survive more than one shot, but they will most definitely not be reflecting the beam back to the source.

Randomiser wrote:msmitsc welcome to the forums!

Neat idea about the mirrors, but I kinda guess Joat42 is right, if it's as easy as that to avoid the lasers (and anything you imagine can be coming up in the mirrors' shadow, then the OBS is bound to have defensive missiles as well.
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Re: Possible way to take out the OBS
Post by jgnfld   » Sat Feb 20, 2016 7:59 am

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msmitsc wrote:Has anyone thought of reflecting the laser defense system of the OBS back on it. All it would take would be laser quality mirrors set up in the X,Y Z axis. Released in an orbit that would bring them close enough to trigger the defense lasers, this would result in any laser fired at the reflectors being sent right back to the source.

Of course this action could cause the system to wake up what ever is sleeping under the early.

Another problem is that even if the OBS is damaged into a nonworking state. The orbit of the entire system could decay leading to an uncontrolled MASSIVE strike on the surface.

So my suggestion is that OWL constructs a swarm of these reflectors to have on standby to be released into orbit take out the OBS if needed for a last ditch defense.


Welcome.

Orbits don't typically decay as a result of an attack with crashes of an entire system/ship/structure down on to the planet except in movies. Well structures around Sphinx are a partial exception, I guess.

Anyway, the system will remain invulnerable as long as the author needs it to be!!!
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Re: Possible way to take out the OBS
Post by Isilith   » Sat Feb 20, 2016 9:36 am

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Honestly, taking out the OBS is childishly easy. No idea why Merlin hasn't done it already. Load up his transport ship with baseball sized steel balls, thousands upon thousands of them... go to orbit and intersect the orbital path of the OBS, fly in opposite orbital direction ) on the other side of the planet ) of the OBS, release steel balls... land back on Safehold, watch the OBS turn into even more space junk.
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Re: Possible way to take out the OBS
Post by Dauntless   » Sat Feb 20, 2016 10:02 am

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if it can detect and destroy stealthy snarcs then why do you assume it can not track and eliminate space junk that just happens to be about to hit it?
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Re: Possible way to take out the OBS
Post by thanatos   » Sat Feb 20, 2016 12:18 pm

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Isilith wrote:Honestly, taking out the OBS is childishly easy. No idea why Merlin hasn't done it already. Load up his transport ship with baseball sized steel balls, thousands upon thousands of them... go to orbit and intersect the orbital path of the OBS, fly in opposite orbital direction ) on the other side of the planet ) of the OBS, release steel balls... land back on Safehold, watch the OBS turn into even more space junk.


I doubt it would be that easy. Moreover, we must remember RFC's general approach to technology in the Safehold series. Textev indicates that orbital bombardment platforms are located inside a defensive perimeter. We must also assume, given the existence of nanotechnology and its widespread usage in the TF that the platforms themselves are self-repairing, with swarms of nanites going throughout the system and fixing damaged circuitry or replacing broken down installations. What I am curious about is the maintenance cycle itself and how the platforms get the raw materials needed to replenish the nanites as they inevitably burn out as well as more critical systems. The OBS would need to have SNARCs and remotes (who would have their own maintenance cycles) to perform the periodic shopping spree to acquire the necessary materials from the local asteroid belt. Couldn't Merlin send out his SNARCs or even the Recon Skimmer to intercept these resupply runs? Obviously that raises the question of whether the platforms react to that as well.
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Re: Possible way to take out the OBS
Post by Henry Brown   » Sat Feb 20, 2016 6:00 pm

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One thing I wonder about: way back in OAR Owl told Merlin that he could not devise a plan to take out the OBS. Yet Owl has evolved over the series and is currently much more capable than in OAR. Perhaps the current Owl could think outside the box and come up with a plan that the original version could not devise?
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