muller@ecn.purdue.edu (Mark B. Muller) (01/17/91)
From: muller@ecn.purdue.edu (Mark B. Muller) I am in the pocess of writing a game for simulating combat in outer space in the far future, and I have a question; what are the effects of nuclear weapons in outer space? I know that there would be no compression wave due to the lack of a medium, but how intense would the radiation put out be. For example, how far away could the effects of a small device cause structural damage to steel? What about a large device? How well can electronics be hardened against damage? Also, how might nuclear devices be optimized for this enviroment, and how could their energy be used. For example, I remember seeing the SDI proposal to use a nuclear device the power an X-ray laser generator; are their any other similar type uses that people can dream up? I realize that this discussion is probably not appropriate for sci.military, but I figured people on this group would be most likely to know. Therefore, please respond via e-mail. If there is interest, I will post a summary. Thanks in advance. *-------------------------------------------------------------------------* * Mark Muller Undergraduate at Purdue University * * muller@gn.ecn.purdue.edu Aeronautics & Astronautics Engineering * *-------------------------------------------------------------------------*