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Southern Star, v. 1, issue 1, 1941
Page 24
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SOUTHERN STAR Space Ships And Space War Page 24 mean how the hell is it going to be? How are you going to spot the enemy, what sort of guns are you going to use? What's your space ship going to look like, how does it operate, what size, how many in the crew, mainly, HOW DOES IT FIGHT? I view with considerable anticipation the settling of your capable imaginations on the subject, for there are difficulties of the first water. F' rixample, are you going to use ray gun or shrapnel? Arguments on both sides. See Willy Ley's article. (("Space War" . Astounding, August '39. JG)). If you say shrapnel, then what sort of shrapnel will it be? The space buccaneer in the magazine is always being surrounded by from twenty to thirty police ships. The police shoot at his ship -- but with what? Our hero replies -- but what with, to vary the construction? Now me, I don't cotton a-tall to this business of some kind of screens, ala the supreme Smith, thrown out into space, the Lord knows how, that stop the enemy in his -- so to speak -- tracks. I think the stories should be reasonably plausible. what the heck are these screens? Smith doesn't say. I don't care to exert myself in saying. They are, I say simply, one of those impossible things, and they will appear, if at all, centuries after the space ship appears. So let's just take the ship, for a starter, and that's plenty to take even by itself. My belief is this: Some form of shrapnel will be used : not necessarily like what we know today. and how's this? A projectile is constructed that will explode by regulated timing, a certain number of seconds after contact with SPACE. Not atmosphere. It would not, therefore, detonate within a ship, where a breathable air is maintained. Okay, the shell explodes. In space. Would not the flying fragments of steel travel much farther in space than they would in an atmosphere? There would be nothing, literally, to stop them. Accordingly, if shrapnel should explode anywhere near a space ship there'd be a high probability of damage. And so, I picture to myself a space ship with gun chambers shut off from the rest of the ship by air locks. Bubbles, you might say, in the side of the ship. The guns could be aimed by a man inside the ship, outside both locks. In a case of close quarters the gunner would be inside the bubble, the better to aim. In short, picture yourself inside a space ship, shooting a shotgun out one of the ports. There would be considerably more effective range than there would be on earth. Question arises, what would the effective range be? And so fo 'th and so fo 'th. I hope you get the idea. The ray business seems unfair, even if workable, and the screen business for defense seems equally unfair (although anything is fair in love and war). And the only thing left is shrapnel. And in addition to all that, I'm giving you my opinion and letting you come back at it. It gives you the edge, but that's exactly how I want it. I want you to stretch yourself, strain the little gray cells. It'll do you good. And by the way, about the worst account of a space battle I ever hope to read was that one in Thrilling Wonder by Mr. Burks, I think. West Point of the Future, or something. And they pay people for that sort of thing. However, let's hear from you on the subject, Fred. Fischer: Bringing up your points one by one. Well, spotting the enemy in space would undoubtedly be quite a problem, due not only to the tremendous velocity required to make space-traveling practical but due also to the vast distances separating opposing craft -- dis --
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SOUTHERN STAR Space Ships And Space War Page 24 mean how the hell is it going to be? How are you going to spot the enemy, what sort of guns are you going to use? What's your space ship going to look like, how does it operate, what size, how many in the crew, mainly, HOW DOES IT FIGHT? I view with considerable anticipation the settling of your capable imaginations on the subject, for there are difficulties of the first water. F' rixample, are you going to use ray gun or shrapnel? Arguments on both sides. See Willy Ley's article. (("Space War" . Astounding, August '39. JG)). If you say shrapnel, then what sort of shrapnel will it be? The space buccaneer in the magazine is always being surrounded by from twenty to thirty police ships. The police shoot at his ship -- but with what? Our hero replies -- but what with, to vary the construction? Now me, I don't cotton a-tall to this business of some kind of screens, ala the supreme Smith, thrown out into space, the Lord knows how, that stop the enemy in his -- so to speak -- tracks. I think the stories should be reasonably plausible. what the heck are these screens? Smith doesn't say. I don't care to exert myself in saying. They are, I say simply, one of those impossible things, and they will appear, if at all, centuries after the space ship appears. So let's just take the ship, for a starter, and that's plenty to take even by itself. My belief is this: Some form of shrapnel will be used : not necessarily like what we know today. and how's this? A projectile is constructed that will explode by regulated timing, a certain number of seconds after contact with SPACE. Not atmosphere. It would not, therefore, detonate within a ship, where a breathable air is maintained. Okay, the shell explodes. In space. Would not the flying fragments of steel travel much farther in space than they would in an atmosphere? There would be nothing, literally, to stop them. Accordingly, if shrapnel should explode anywhere near a space ship there'd be a high probability of damage. And so, I picture to myself a space ship with gun chambers shut off from the rest of the ship by air locks. Bubbles, you might say, in the side of the ship. The guns could be aimed by a man inside the ship, outside both locks. In a case of close quarters the gunner would be inside the bubble, the better to aim. In short, picture yourself inside a space ship, shooting a shotgun out one of the ports. There would be considerably more effective range than there would be on earth. Question arises, what would the effective range be? And so fo 'th and so fo 'th. I hope you get the idea. The ray business seems unfair, even if workable, and the screen business for defense seems equally unfair (although anything is fair in love and war). And the only thing left is shrapnel. And in addition to all that, I'm giving you my opinion and letting you come back at it. It gives you the edge, but that's exactly how I want it. I want you to stretch yourself, strain the little gray cells. It'll do you good. And by the way, about the worst account of a space battle I ever hope to read was that one in Thrilling Wonder by Mr. Burks, I think. West Point of the Future, or something. And they pay people for that sort of thing. However, let's hear from you on the subject, Fred. Fischer: Bringing up your points one by one. Well, spotting the enemy in space would undoubtedly be quite a problem, due not only to the tremendous velocity required to make space-traveling practical but due also to the vast distances separating opposing craft -- dis --
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