Battle of Spindle

kzt wrote:

Loren Pechtel wrote: If the Shrike is 1km^2 (and I don't think it's anything like that!) you have a 1 in 30 billion chance of hitting.

So you say there is a chance?

It's actually 20mx20m on the tail. You have to aim very carefully.

Okay, 1 in 75 trillion chance of a hit.

TFLYTSNBN wrote:

Loren Pechtel wrote:1) The mechanics of a bomb-pumped lasers mean that each rod's energy will be multiplied by the cosine of the angle between it's actual orientation and it's ideal orientation. You want your lasers pretty much in a plane.

Back in the day when they were working on "Star Wars" missile defense, multiple lasing rods to engage multiple missiles seemed to make sense. Even then the concept art portrayed the ends of lasing rods being in physical contact with the bomb casing. Given the tactics i the Honorverse where each missile can attack only one star ship, a unitary lssing rod or a parallel bundle of lasing rods incorporated in the bomb casing would be far more logical.

I was looking at Honorverse bombs, not real world bombs. In the real world the energy of a nuke radiates in all directions, for any desired angle there is a position that will impart maximum energy to the laser.

However, Honorverse bombs have gravitational focusing--the energy is mostly confined to one direction and the rods are put in front of that. This takes away the ability to point the lasers anywhere you want. (But gives you vastly more power in the laser in exchange.)

Casaba Howitzer was a shaped charge nuke that was a spinoff of project Orion.

Most all the details are still classified, but it supposedly could produce a very large percentage of the energy on about a 6 degree wide beam.

kzt wrote:Casaba Howitzer was a shaped charge nuke that was a spinoff of project Orion.

Most all the details are still classified, but it supposedly could produce a very large percentage of the energy on about a 6 degree wide beam.

I'd say that is complete and utter BS scuttlebutt. There is nothing in this universe known to man to push high dose radiation in one direction.

kzt wrote:Casaba Howitzer was a shaped charge nuke that was a spinoff of project Orion.

Most all the details are still classified, but it supposedly could produce a very large percentage of the energy on about a 6 degree wide beam.

Damn it!

You beat me to it.

Relax wrote:

kzt wrote:Casaba Howitzer was a shaped charge nuke that was a spinoff of project Orion.

Most all the details are still classified, but it supposedly could produce a very large percentage of the energy on about a 6 degree wide beam.

I'd say that is complete and utter BS scuttlebutt. There is nothing in this universe known to man to push high dose radiation in one direction.

Radiation, no.

Kinetic energy of the fusion fuel and fusion products, yes.

Remember, aside from Gamma rays emitted from either fission products or fusion products, most of the EM radiation from a nuke is X-rays emitted over a considerable time (relative to the actual time the fission/fusion reaction occurs) emitted by the ionized plasma that was the bomb.

Oh, I forgot, chunks of bomb casing can actually survive the detonation. They used to find them scattered around on the ground after atmospheric testing. This of course inspired Dr Van Allen which led to the nuclear test that resulted in Dr Van Allen loosing his balls.

TFLYTSNBN wrote:
Kinetic energy of the fusion fuel and fusion products, yes.

Remember, aside from Gamma rays emitted from either fission products or fusion products, most of the EM radiation from a nuke is X-rays emitted over a considerable time (relative to the actual time the fission/fusion reaction occurs) emitted by the ionized plasma that was the bomb.

Oh, I forgot, chunks of bomb casing can actually survive the detonation. They used to find them scattered around on the ground after atmospheric testing. This of course inspired Dr Van Allen which led to the nuclear test that resulted in Dr Van Allen loosing his balls.

Basically you project a very large fraction of the burst energy in a 5.9 degree cone composed of material moving at about 1,000 km sec.

There was also the early underground tests where the space above the 900 kilo tunnel cover was bring filmed by a camera running at 1,000 frames per second, to see what happened to the cover and measure it's velocity. Sadly it only appeared in one frame, which means it was moving at at least 100,000 km/hour. It's unclear if went into solar orbit or if it burned up in the atmosphere due to friction.

kzt wrote:

TFLYTSNBN wrote:
Kinetic energy of the fusion fuel and fusion products, yes.

Remember, aside from Gamma rays emitted from either fission products or fusion products, most of the EM radiation from a nuke is X-rays emitted over a considerable time (relative to the actual time the fission/fusion reaction occurs) emitted by the ionized plasma that was the bomb.

Oh, I forgot, chunks of bomb casing can actually survive the detonation. They used to find them scattered around on the ground after atmospheric testing. This of course inspired Dr Van Allen which led to the nuclear test that resulted in Dr Van Allen loosing his balls.

Basically you project a very large fraction of the burst energy in a 5.9 degree cone composed of material moving at about 1,000 km sec.

There was also the early underground tests where the space above the 900 kilo tunnel cover was bring filmed by a camera running at 1,000 frames per second, to see what happened to the cover and measure it's velocity. Sadly it only appeared in one frame, which means it was moving at at least 100,000 km/hour. It's unclear if went into solar orbit or if it burned up in the atmosphere due to friction.

Projectile weapons powered by nuclear rather than chemical reactions?

TFLYTSNBN wrote:

kzt wrote:There was also the early underground tests where the space above the 900 kilo tunnel cover was bring filmed by a camera running at 1,000 frames per second, to see what happened to the cover and measure it's velocity. Sadly it only appeared in one frame, which means it was moving at at least 100,000 km/hour. It's unclear if went into solar orbit or if it burned up in the atmosphere due to friction.

Projectile weapons powered by nuclear rather than chemical reactions?

That was mentioned by the Bu9 guys at the first or second Honorcon, before the cosplayers mouthing SJW slogans took over, that this was the proposed mechanism underlying the Honorverse plasma guns.

TFLYTSNBN wrote:
Oh, I forgot, chunks of bomb casing can actually survive the detonation. They used to find them scattered around on the ground after atmospheric testing. This of course inspired Dr Van Allen which led to the nuclear test that resulted in Dr Van Allen loosing his balls.

That requires further explanation, yes?