[WMCoolmon]

Towing it wouldn't work. The way the Knossos moves defies physics; you'd have to stop the things from spinning first, or build a giant frying pan you could tow around the Knossos and move it.

Command would've been better off parking something big on the jump node, mining the area, destroying the G-D node, or trying to destroy the node with an explosive within (after deactivating the Knossos).

[Cobra]

Originally posted by WMCoolmon
Towing it wouldn't work. The way the Knossos moves defies physics; you'd have to stop the things from spinning first, or build a giant frying pan you could tow around the Knossos and move it.

that's basically what i just said.

Command would've been better off parking something big on the jump node, mining the area, destroying the G-D node, or trying to destroy the node with an explosive within (after deactivating the Knossos).

yeah, much better than blasting a millennia-year-old ancient artifact to space dust.

[Carl]

Originally posted by WMCoolmon
Towing it wouldn't work. The way the Knossos moves defies physics; you'd have to stop the things from spinning first, or build a giant frying pan you could tow around the Knossos and move it.

Originally posted by Carl
if you hook up cables to each of the pieces and tow them perpendicular to the rotation plane (in the direction of the axis) then the matter is quite simple.

[aldo_14]

Wouldn't that be pulling the segments apart?  Which might not even be possible.

[NGTM-1R]

There's also the matter of connecting the cables, and doing so such that the towing craft would not be damaged...which is an impossiblity.

Recall that the Knossos' components interlock. Any attempt to tow all the segments of it would result in some of the cables being snapped; any attempt to tow just the larger segements would cause the smaller ones to crash into the larger.

Also, before such a tow could even be attempted, the towing craft would have to match the movement of the segment it is supposed to tow. Since no known craft in FS is capable of moving at such speeds, much less one large enough to tow a cruiser or corvette-sized chunk of stuff, that's just not going to happen.

[Cobra]

stop stating what i just said! argh!

[StratComm]

Cobra, you said no such thing.  Your post refers to strain on ship systems after they had been hooked up, which a) makes little sense and b) has precious little to do with what we're talking about.  I think the Knossos could be turned off, pulled out of position one piece at a time and then reassembled and turned back on, but you couldn't move an active one.  It's somewhat anchored to the node as well, remember, so it's not so simple as just moving the physical components.

[EtherShock]

Too bad they don't have tractor beams in the FS universe. They'd have no problems moving that thing with tractor beams once it was shut down.

[Carl]

Originally posted by StratComm
but you couldn't move an active one.

yes, you could. as i've stated twice before: just hook up cables to each of the pieces and tow them perpendicular to the rotation plane in the direction of the axis.

[WMCoolmon]

Originally posted by StratComm
Cobra, you said no such thing.  Your post refers to strain on ship systems after they had been hooked up, which a) makes little sense and b) has precious little to do with what we're talking about.  I think the Knossos could be turned off, pulled out of position one piece at a time and then reassembled and turned back on, but you couldn't move an active one.  It's somewhat anchored to the node as well, remember, so it's not so simple as just moving the physical components.

Actually, Cobra's post is perfectly valid. Even if you managed to hook a ship up to one of the segments, it has to be able to pull it away. Unless the GTVA has hauler ships the size of the Colossus, any of the segments would put a heavy strain on the superstructure and engines of the ship attempting to tow it.

The only way I can see you hooking a ship up to the segments in the first place would be to create a rotating tug attachment to a ship, then start pulling. (Or the giant frying pan idea, of course).

Any other method would either knot the cables, or put the ship in competition with the force that makes the segments orbit around the jump point.

This sounds like a fun question to put on a MESA quiz, though.

I think what I'm thinking of in the 2nd paragraph is what you're describing, Carl, but I can't see how you'd do it without making the cable rapidly spin up or knot (which would eventually snap it).

[Fade Rathnik]

Going on the towing the peices apart argument you could just attach a great deal of weight to one of the segments like some kind of scoop( with maybe some thrusters but we'll use those later) then present bunches of raw ore or some other heavy matter.
With the motion of the ring it would be only a matter of time before the load on the one segment would tear it away from the formation. Of course this would likely send the segments flying  at unknown vectors at unimaginable velocities.
Likely you would have to put some kind for recovery thruster system on each of the peices. To do that you would need a ship at the center with a spinning counter weight rig on it to  attach something to each of the components, but the catch with that is you have to do opposit segments on each ring at the same time so that you didn't throw off the ballance off the rig, and to get to the outside sections you could attach a super structure that the inner segments pass thru.
Now mind you the engineering and preplanning for a venture such as this is quite costly in time and resources. Custom refabrication of a science ship with the spinning pannals replaced by a spinning rig that can unfold around the inner segments, thats likely rocket powered with four attachable thruster packs onboard each side is no small order.
Point is likely the GTVA didnt have any workable plan for saving the gate for later, by workable i mean with the time frame they had. So they fell back on the same universal plan Snipes did in Into the Lions Den  when in doubt put the biggest bomb you got next to it and blow the forshnocker out of it.

[WMCoolmon]

I think Volition's point was that the GTVA's selfishness (keeping a worthless system it thought of as theirs, by trying to blow up the Ancient portal) led to the downfall of Capella.

[NGTM-1R]

Originally posted by Carl


yes, you could. as i've stated twice before: just hook up cables to each of the pieces and tow them perpendicular to the rotation plane in the direction of the axis.

I just explained why you couldn't. Read that again, please. Granted, it would be possible to tow the larger, exterior ring, but first you would have to match velocities and courses with it, an impossiblity with known FS technology. Attempting to tow it all at once is doubly impossible, because the components interlock and the inner ring's cables would be severed by the outer. Attempting to tow it without matching velocity and course so that you are moving in the same direction at the same rate is even more impossible, as it would require slack in the tow, which defeats the purpose and would overstress the cable as it snaps tight repeatedly, and also the cable would get taken out by the relatively topmost piece when the piece you are attempting to tow is at the bottom of the rotation.

[Carl]

ngtm1r, you obviously don't understand what i'm saying.

[WMCoolmon]

Trying to pull on the same plane as most ships are on in the missions that involve the Knossos wouldn't work either with a simple cable rig.

[NGTM-1R]

Originally posted by Carl
ngtm1r, you obviously don't understand what i'm saying.

There are two possible ways to interpret what you are saying.

Either you mean to tow it like so

l
l---->
l

or like this

/\
-
-
-
l
l
l

Both of them are impossible. I have proved this for both. Clarify your statements, you will find they remain wrong.

[Carl]

first you would have to match velocities and courses with it, an impossiblity with known FS technology

if you look at the CB animation with the faustus' scanning the knossos with the green beam thingy, they are matching it's speed. alternatively, you could shoot a grapling hook at it as it passes by.

components interlock and the inner ring's cables would be severed by the outer

not if the cables are attached to the bottoms of the inner ring segments and to the sides of the outer ring segments.

[Goober5000]

Whoa, that would actually work!

The only problem is that the cables would pull the segments toward the center, so rigid spokes would have to be substituted.  But still, it would work.  Well done.

[WMCoolmon]

So in other words, what I was saying

Edit: Oh, nm the , I thought you said "no it wouldn't work" after my second to last post.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Carl

And the GTVA are meant to build a ship with two counter rotating sections like that in the day or so they had before the Sathanas arrived? Somehow I doubt that a faustus could provide enough thrust to move the knossos.