REM%MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP (04/05/84)
From: Robert Elton Maas <REM @ MIT-MC>
Date: 1 Apr 1984 09:48 PST (Sun)
From: Ian Macky <Ian@SRI-NIC>
I seem to remember that the projectiles the Americans and Russians
were firing at each other were ... rifle rounds ... fired parallel to the
ground, and so were able to make it all the way around and sneak up
from behind.
Hmmm, well then maybe the original story was basically correct, except
I'm rather amazed such high-speed bullets were used for such close
combat, but maybe... I presume the two bases were on the equator,
oriented east-west from each other, so rotation of the moon wouldn't
cause bullets to miss launch point laterally? (They would still "miss"
longitudinally as Moon rotates, causing nearest-point not to be
exactly the same, so bullet is rising or falling just above
nearest-point when returning to starting point, but only by
1-cos(angle) which is incredibly small for small angles.)
I stand tentatively corrected.hutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison) (04/12/84)
<bang bang - shooting at bugs in lunar gravity> I hate to ask this, since it seems painfully obvious. Why wouldn't intervening mountains get in the way? The moon is not a polished sphere. Also, the gravity of the moon is acting as a continuous acceleration on the bullets. It would seem to me that IF a bullet were fired in JUST the right path to achieve an orbit, that it would last maybe two or three orbits (at that altitude) before it decayed and fell to ground. Hutch <not a physics major but this is worse than counterintuitive>
wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) (04/13/84)
[] Aw, come on gang! It was only a funny story. If your going to read SF, you gotta learn to suspend belief once in awhile. I thought the punch line of the story was a gas. I had an image of the moon-walkers diving and running all over the place every time the shells came whizzing by. Then, going to Congress to ask for enough money to buy a computer to be able to predicte the next passage of the shells was a laugher. Loosen up, don't get so serious about the shell problem. Imagine Laurel and Hardy all dressed up in space suits, carring a large sheet of glass between them when one of the shells goes through the glass. Can't you see the possibilities for humorous situations?