[email removed] writes:
> Scout Ship has accel of 2 G's. As such it will reach 1/10 speed of light
> in (oops don't have my calculator...) approx 5 days (?) at which point
> you toss your one cubic centimeter lead pellets out the airlock.
Speed of light = 3*10**8 m/s
2*G = 19.6 m/s**2 (near enough for this purpose, anyway)
Time to accelerate to 3*10**7 m/s = 18 days, neglecting the effects of
relativity.
> As far as I know, there is no navigational deflector (ala star trek) in
> Trav, and as I said before, it would have 16 seconds to pick up the target
> and act on it before the object streaked from Far Orbit range to impact.
In which case, what protects the ship, now travelling at 0.1c, from the first
dust particle it hits?
You're going to have to do all the accelerating blind, because you're out of
sensor range. If you're in sensor range, someone on the planet has 18 days'
warning that you are accelerating yourself at him, and plenty of time to get
your ship with a meson gun or nuclear missile. Or even a sandcaster, whose
particles you are going to collide with at something less than 0.1c, but still
fast enough to do interesting things to your ship. So, you have to fire blind.
Your chances of hitting a ship this way are virtually nil; by the time you've
finished accelerating, the ship has probably done what it came to the planet
to do, and long since left. Assuming you can find someone prepared to fly a
ship at 0.1c without navigational deflectors (hint - not any character I'm
running :-) you might be able to attack the planet, whose course is entirely
predictable.
- - --
"Keyboard? How quaint!" - M. Scott
Adrian Hurt | JANET: [email removed]
UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian | ARPA: [email removed]