Lord Skimper wrote:Not so much scify but what could we at current tech levels use or do?
I Always have wondered if a Telsa type weapons would be possible? Can lightning travel through space?
Of course it CAN... It doesn´t travel WELL however. Tesla is likely mostly a bust.
Given that humans don't like sharing anything with non humans what will our space combat be based on.
Our current inability to put things in orbit is the primary limiter. It effectively means we are unable to wage war in space at this time.
After that comes the limit of our pathetically weak/shortburn engines. Meaning that maneuvering would be extremely restricted.
If we could overcome the orbital insertion limit, this means we would likely have to go mainly with ships of the huge and clunky style, with extreme armouring to give any chance of surviving damage.
Missiles would be ineffective due to our lack of suitable engines.
Lasers, Gauss/railgun etc, plasma, particle accelerator and semi-conventional cannons would likely be the best weapon outfit.
Shields effectively does not exist today. As the few shield effects that has been tested or thought up so far use so horribly much energy for relatively minor protection that they´re probably useless.
A few of the ideas MIGHT become useful in the near future. For example, the idea of dispersing iron particles in a strong magnetic field around a vessel does work already, but they need to figure out how to keep the shield from loosing cohesion when hit before it will give noticeable protection.
