48
votes
Can we hit the spaceship
Frame challenge / "no" for other reasons
Realistically at least one country will want to destroy them
This is false. If an alien ship reaches our solar system, our scientists will tell our ...
- 14.2k
18
votes
Can we hit the spaceship
"Can we hit the ship" - yes, reliably, provided they don't change course (which I frankly expect them to be able to, anyway they are to shed off 100km/s delta-V to stick to Earth orbit) and ...
- 6,466
15
votes
Can we hit the spaceship
Your best bet is to rely on the "can't be built fast enough" side of things. There are only two countries that can launch an interplanetary payload on six months' notice: the United States, ...
- 17.3k
15
votes
What would the effects of a space based laser weapon system capable of tracking and destroying any projectile posing a threat to human life?
Such a system, assuming that for a moment it could actually work, would make war terribly easy!
Having a laser capable of vaporizing a bullet from a distance of at least 80 km in the few milliseconds ...
- 277k
13
votes
Accepted
Can we hit the spaceship
1) If nuclear warhead detonation is less precise than 4ms
Hitting a 4ms target window is chump change for modern semiconductor tech.
Consider an average desktop computer might have a CPU speed of 3GHz....
- 21.3k
12
votes
What would the effects of a space based laser weapon system capable of tracking and destroying any projectile posing a threat to human life?
The first effect? There'd be a lot more anti-satellite weapons developed.
The second effect would be a lot more light based weapons in general use.
Weapons and armour are an age long ever evolving ...
- 117k
10
votes
Accepted
Reality Check: Meteor Shower buried supermetal in the earth's crust, that is now being mined out
One magic search phrase you might find useful is strewn field.
The term strewn field indicates the area where meteorites from a single fall are dispersed.
For a real world example, consider the ...
- 72.7k
10
votes
Reality Check: Meteor Shower buried supermetal in the earth's crust, that is now being mined out
Meteoric iron being used as ore source is a thing. In the past, before mining technology was sufficiently developed, it was the only way to source iron.
Meteoric iron, sometimes meteoritic iron, is a ...
- 277k
8
votes
Can we hit the spaceship
Can We hit it? Yes.
There's a multitude of ways such an object could be hit. Let's go through your points:
4 ms response time - Easy with modern electronics, Next.
Nothing to fit the role of ...
- 18.9k
6
votes
What would the effects of a space based laser weapon system capable of tracking and destroying any projectile posing a threat to human life?
The sensors for this system would change everything.
The ability to detect and recognize a bullet in flight would mean detecting and classifying bullet-sized objects in the environment, worldwide, 24/...
- 112k
6
votes
What would the effects of a space based laser weapon system capable of tracking and destroying any projectile posing a threat to human life?
No, this would not render modern projectile weapons obsolete. It would make them more difficult to use, and it would change the tactical environment.
Consider that Adam wants to kill Bob. Adam has a ...
- 56.2k
4
votes
How to increase the structural integrity of comets (for the purpose of moving them)?
Thaw and re-freeze in more uniform, solid building blocks. Water ice on the outside to increase albedo, gases and gravel on the inside.
Bag it in a big plastic sheet. Carbon dust and soot plus ...
- 112k
4
votes
Reality Check: Meteor Shower buried supermetal in the earth's crust, that is now being mined out
The Sudbury basin is the result of a meteor and is a large mining area. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_Basin In this case, the minerals might be the result of magma interacting with the meteor ...
- 5,052
4
votes
Can we hit the spaceship
Realistically at least one country will want to destroy them, which
breaks the plot, so I need to know if they're told "no" by science or
"no" for other reasons.
Tom already ...
- 1,912
2
votes
Can we hit the spaceship
Nukes are actually more destructive in space than on Earth
(As an aside, first I'd like to tell you that a nuclear fission reaction typically is over within 100 "shakes," a shake being 10^-8 ...
- 6,910
2
votes
Reality Check: Meteor Shower buried supermetal in the earth's crust, that is now being mined out
"Supermetal" being a very general idea, I can think of the 33_Polyhymnia asteroid. The asteroid is too dense to be made entirely out of "ordinary" matter. It is said to be much ...
- 5,222
1
vote
What would the effects of a space based laser weapon system capable of tracking and destroying any projectile posing a threat to human life?
Couldn't be done
The biggest threat would be the satellite system itself. Would birds swooping get targeted and fried? Baseballs? Spitwads? Snowballs? Random pieces of gravel thrown by a passing truck?...
- 45.9k
1
vote
What would the effects of a space based laser weapon system capable of tracking and destroying any projectile posing a threat to human life?
As described so far, the laser would destroy any lethal projectile to which it has line of sight. This wouldn't make projectine weapons obsolete, indoors or with any cover from the laser they will ...
- 357
1
vote
Space station maglev junction design
I think the center rail has several problems:
It can't have a magnetic field that is repulsive all around. (at least not without a magnetic monopole, which doesn't exist in current theory.)
It doesn'...
- 330
1
vote
Is it possible for a planetary ring to exist beyond a planet's Roche limit?
Yes, but it would be unstable beyond about an order of magnitude greater than the roche limit. The outer edge of Saturn's rings is 8.1 roche limits distant, for example.
The reason being is as soon as ...
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