Fusion warheads sound interesting and plausible.
The discussion on this implied the need for a FISSION reaction to get the
FUSION reaction going and that using a standard FUSION power plant from a
space ship would be the other alternative.
Staship FUSION plants include all sorts of safe-guards and monitors and
consoles and shielding and spare parts and service facilities to operate and
that chews up a lot of the size and cost.
What if the missile contained the bare essentials to maintain a FUSION
reaction for a minimal amount of time (time to get to a target) and then
critical OR if it met the target earlier then it could voluntarily go
critical.
The missile in this case would be much smaller (approaching normal size) and
would need to be "ignited" just prior to launch. This could be done by
"squirting" some "FUSION" from your starship's FUSION plant into the missile
just before launching it. Please don't yell at me. I'm not a nuclear
scientist and don't know how you would do these things in reality so I put
them in double quotes.
Is this feasible?
Now onto my main topic... NUCLEAR DAMPERS.
Is this a field effect? If so then how do you prevent it from damping your
own starship powerplant and all your own missiles?
If its a projector of some sort then why can't it be used as a weapon to
stop starships dead in space?
What sort of range does it have?
Is there a definitive description of this magical device somewhere?
Are nuclear dampers just magical devices dreamed up by GDW (like MESON guns)
or is there a remote possibility that we could produce one in a few
thousand years or so?
Oh I'm full of questions today. Aren't I?
Bruce.... [email removed]