Hi guys, I need help with a game design problem.
In my game world, spacecraft carry missiles (among other cheerful devices).
I am trying to figure out what kind of damage missiles would really do to
a spacecraft. Here is a sample scenario...
A battleship, in my game world, masses 60,000 tons (= about 600,000 cubic
meters with my ship design system). Its armor reduces the problems caused
by particle beams (those nasty neutrons!) and makes lasers a laughing
matter, but there is only so much armor you can put on a spacecraft. As
a result, missiles are still a problem.
Missiles are smart oversized bullets. In my game world, they mass roughly
one metric ton (they look a lot like the shells from a 406 mm. howitizer).
They accelerate at 20 gees (= about 200 meters per second per second). They
can be fired from a LONG way off. Since they can boost the whole way, they
generally hit their targets moving at anywhere from 10 km./sec. to 100 km./
sec. (usually in the 50 km./sec. to 70 km./sec range). In some cases, they
can be moving faster (if they are fired at VERY long range, which would
give them perhaps 20 to 30 minutes to boost). Oh, by the way, the warhead
(about 100 kg. of high explosives) can be used either on impact or as
a proximity bomb that turns the missile from one big bullet into about
one thousand smaller bullets slowly spreading the radius of death.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to figure out what kind
of damage a single missile would do to a battleship (feel free to add
comments on what it would do to larger or smaller ships, please, I am
glad to get all the help I can). Are we talking about severe damage but
some ship systems still working? A disabled ship that must be towed or
abandoned but could still be repaired? A shattered, lifeless hulk slowly
drifting off into the void?
Thanks in advance for comments, suggestions, etc.
Mark Gellis
[email removed]