rigney@uokvax.UUCP (12/19/83)
#R:astrovax:-16800:uokvax:12300005:000:2383 uokvax!rigney Dec 16 14:35:00 1983 <> What I want to know is why anyone would build anything so easy to shoot down! Some of these are actually points in FAVOR of a huge ship! Method 1) Nuclear Bombs - aparantly not permissable in univers of discourse The bigger the ship, the more likely it is to survive a Nuclear bomb. Remember space has no atmosphere to transmit any shock effect, and the larger the object is, the faster it can radiate away the heat, and the more backups it can have. Assuming its electronics are not vulnerable to EMP (if there would even be an EMP in deep space, which is doubtful), the only effect would be radiation damage to the crew. And if it has thick shielding, not even that. My impression is that nukes are too primitive to be useful, although the torpedoes may be pure fusion-based. Method 2) Put 'droids on large star ship filled w/ rocks. Wait for death star to be at edge of solar system. have ship go into hyper space and reappear INSIDE death star ..... BOOM I don't believe ships can leave hyperspace to materialize inside another object, due to densities, gravitational gradients, or whatever. If this wasn't true, you wouldn't need a deathstar to destroy a planet, just a small spaceship with an expendable crew. (However, I'm in favor of anything that kills droids :-) Method 3) Infect person or 'droids w/ something realy nasty Bubonic Plague, Tyfoid, aerilian death fungus.... Let same be picked up by DS. Wait. Again, the larger the ship, the less effective this is. The Deathstar has massive medical facilities, and can seal off infected areas with no trouble. But maybe that's why the Stormtroopers are always wearing respirators, to avoid catching anything nasty from the rebels. :-) Method 4) Since small craft can get by defenses - send in small drones w/ large (non nuke) bombs. Use them to dig way to reactors and blow same. This is essentially what was done in Star Wars I, and you can be sure it would have been corrected on the second Death Star. If you try to dig your way to the reactors, it'll take a LONG time through solid steel or whatever, I seriously doubt whether a small burrowing bomb could do the job. Of course, all this is in fun. We all know the REAL reason the Death Star's so large is because it's a giant capacitor; the planet destroying beam is a glorified spark! :-) Carl ..!ctvax!uokvax!rigney
arlan@inuxd.UUCP (A Andrews) (12/21/83)
Why on earth would there NOT be EMP in deep space? The atmosphere only impedes such phenomena. Let me assure you, that back in the old days when BTL worked on the ABM system, EMP was much worried over, even in the fratricide (friendly fire) scenarios. --Arlan Andrews, AT&T-CPL (if we are still that as of now...)--Indpls