Re: missiles

Actually, for penetration, a kinetic energy weapon would
probably be better than a small nuclear device since all
the damage would be concentrated in the immediate area of
impact (could punch thru more armor).

To get an idea of just how much energy is in one of your
high velocity missiles, I did a quick back of the envelope
calculation.

Assuming only the warhead is left (and it won't matter much
if it's explosive or just dead weight), at 50 km/s to 70 km/s
you get 125 GigaJoules and 245 GigaJoules respectively.

How much is that?  Take the Love Boat (or any other smallish-
medium ocean liner) and drop it (on Earth of course) from a
height of about half a kilometer.  That should be about right.

And imagine all that energy in the space of a 100 kg mass.


Hey, I finally tracked down the address to this mailing list
and got myself subscribed.  It's great to be here!
- --
John H. Kim
[email removed]