[Nephilim]

Seeing as how freespace takes place in the 24th century and they are freely flying around space, here is my question to you die hard freespacers.
Do you think that there capital ships use some sort of force field or deflector to pretect their hulls from those little partiles of rock traveling at 18,000+ mph?
I could understand fighters with their shields and all but large shieldless capital ships would be in serious trouble, expecially since alpha one can't target rocks that is about a millimeter thick.
If not the hull's would look like swiss cheese in under a minute of traveling through the partile infested universe that is freespace. Then the GTVA would have a bigger problem then the shivans  

Your thoughts?

[jonskowitz]

I really doubt they need to worry about it.  After all most of them can withstand MULTIPLE strikes with nuclear and thermo-nuclear weapons  

[Shrike]

Well, the space shuttle isn't swiss cheesed every time it goes into orbit.... so I'd say the much, much tougher FS ships don't have many problems.  

[NeoHunter]

I don't think that's a problem for FreeSpace capital ships. Their hulls can take on torpedoes, beam fire and lasers. What do you think?

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[Nephilim]

I think,
1. the space shuttle is though in a dangereous position is still shielded from some effectes of small particles veture outside earths orbit and well it may be open to s shooting gallery   (ever seen mission to mars?)

2. Bombs are one thing but a meterorite travelling at super high speeds is another, i mean a human body can withstand a punch but tell someone to throw a marble at you at 18,000 mph and see what happens.

Thought, maybe they channel some sort of engery through some dohicky that does something to the hull  

comments, suggestions?  

[QXMX]

The space shuttle is still protected by the Ionisphere since it only travels roughly 150 miles up, but other spacecraft, such as the various Voyager and Pioneer Craft, and the Mars Pathfinder, had to deal with this stuff, and they were just a bunch of tin foil  

Another thing to remember is that Space is big, and that speed is also relative.  Something big enough to punch a hole in armor, like someone mentioned, that can withstand anti-matter explosives and the Maxim Cannon and large massive asteroid strikes can certainly withstand something that big.  Even so, I'm sure they have the problem of small, fast meteorites and other acts of God that have to be repaired, and why does that sound like a good mission idea  

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[Nephilim]

 

Originally posted by QXMX:
..that can withstand anti-matter explosives...

I don't see how anything can withstand a anti-matter explosion...  

And your right, acts of god does sound like a good mission idea, would be hard to pull off though  

[Setekh]

Hardware wasn't good enough when   made FS and FS2, so they couldn't do hull decompression and junk. So, instead of the chain being as strong as its weakest link, its weakest link was as strong as the entire chain. Oops.   Well, anyway, that means that GTDs can handle antimatter explosions.  

[Shrike]

 

Originally posted by Nephilim:
I don't see how anything can withstand a anti-matter explosion...  

And your right, acts of god does sound like a good mission idea, would be hard to pull off though  

It's just an energy release.  Sure, AM is much more efficient so you get more bang per pound, but it's still just a superduper explosive.  (well, not really, but for our simplistic purposes it is)

[Setekh]

Yeah, true. Just like any other destructive force like antimatter, the reactants will run out eventually (antimatter first, of course).

[wEvil]

a "plasma torch" is capable of blasting ordinary matter into electron soup.

an antimatter explosion would create higher energy densities that that.

What i would guess is GTDs have some special hull coating at one layer that absorbs energy.

Ablative armour, while a reasonable supposition, wouldnt help much.

Also remember that there are compounds and arrangements of existing elements that would be far far far stronger than anything we have today.  (buckminsterfullerine, carbon nanotubes anyone?)

Ive got a couple of other ideas but im keeping them up my sleeve for a while.

Oh..and the dual athlon runs very nice, thankyou  



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[Nico]

 

Originally posted by wEvil:
Oh..and the dual athlon runs very nice, thankyou  

Dang, I need one too, but if I bought it, I would be quite short on money and now I live on my own... So it's not for soon  

[Stryke 9]

Er... the area right outside Earth's atmosphere is MORE dangerous than most other places in space- paint chips, derelict sattelites, dropped tools, little frozen bits of astranout pee... making millions of little particles moving fast enough to punch though inch-thick sheet metal... The Mission to Mars thing is just some made-up "unexplained event" that never would happen in real life, especially seeing as such things never happen to the hundreds of probes we've sent out.

[Ace]

What i would guess is GTDs have some special hull coating at one layer that absorbs energy.

Crushed molybdenum composites... GTVA hulls are so *dense* that they're degenerate matter, the electron shells are crushed onto the surface and the molecules piled up with no space interfering.

Artificial gravity aboard the ships limits the effects of the mass, and the hulls are still not as dense as a neutron star. (also the low amount actually used keeps crews from being smashed alive when a ship looses power)

Does a big rock pose a threat to a neutron star? No.

Would it pose a threat to a GTVA hull which is almost as dense, or a Shivan hull which is as dense? No.  

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Staff member FreeSpace Watch
 http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/

[This message has been edited by Ace (edited 10-08-2001).]

[Nico]

hell, even Mir survived for decades  

[Setekh]

Yeah, until it DIED...  

Hopefully the ISS won't go so... bad.  

[Nico]

 

Originally posted by Setekh:
Yeah, until it DIED...  

Hopefully the ISS won't go so... bad.  

hem, it died coz we threw it into the atmosphere, we would have left it, it would have stayed there for decades.

[Jabu]

Well, the Mir was only supposed to be up there for about 15 years less than it was  

[Unidan]

 

Originally posted by Nephilim:
(ever seen mission to mars?)

I did, that movie was sweet. I think you're talking about the part where the metiorite went through the hull and put a hole in the guys hand. (ouch!)

[Setekh]

Mission to Mars was alright, except the end was... rather odd...