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Southern Star, v. 1, issue 1, 1941
Page 26
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SOUTHERN STAR Space Ships And Space War Page 26 Do you want those things which could possibly operate, or dream-stuff for fantasy mags? The solid missile, to my mind, could not be used. The target would be moving and moving so fast, that only a million-in-one chance would ever allow a bullet or projectile to strike it and do damage, even were the initial impetus of sufficient force to propel the missile to its destination, anywhere up to light years away Not only ballistics, but the most elaborate mathematics imaginable would have to enter into the firing of space guns or space cannon. The trajectory of the offensive missile would have to be plotted, to compensate for the gravitational pull not only of the attacking craft but of the gravitational pull of the enemy craft. in free space; in vacumm, these two bodies would both exert such a force. Also, to strike the opposing ship, the route of the bullet would have to be calculated in order that it could be fired so as to reach a certain exact point in space SIMULTANEOUSLY with the speeding target. If magnetic in nature, the bullet might speed toward its goal, but if magnetic, how would you have it explode? Upon contact, so as to do relatively small damage against thick armorplate? Or should it penetrate and explode? Should it be timed? If so, it would never be efficacious because the exact interval required for it to reach the target could never be surely known. To my mind, a solid projectile, magnetic in nature, is the only kind of missile capable of reaching its intended destination. The first premise has argued that the ships are manageable only as to general direction. Therefore close attack is practically impossible unless tow craft happen to be CONINCIDENTALLY traveling side by side, in which event projectiles MIGHT BE USED. I preclude the use of shrapnel because the pieces would tend to fall free in the direction of their initial velocity, spraying outward and away from each other. The shrapnel sections might all start at the same point, but at a distance of even two miles the different slugs would be so far apart that many of them would entirely miss the target (if aimed true originally). In space the ships would reasonably be much further apart from each other than any two miles. Two hundred miles, even, would be close -- mighty close. We come now to the use of rays, which I advocate not because of plausibility but because of sheer personal lassitude and convenience. Let's use rays by all means. We can originate rays at sixty and hour or better. Death rays, heat rays, could rays, paralysing rays, vibratory rays; and then, too, let's use waves: heat waves, cold waves, radio waves, brain waves, electrical waves, etc., etc., etc. I, too, deplore the use of gravitational screens, force screens, and energy screens and zones of force. See Smith, Campbell, Hamilton -- anybody. We have, you see, reached the well-known impasse. You believe in you getting close enough to me to make it practical. Of course I'm not particularly dangerous to you either, with my purely imaginary rays, but I can still shoot at you from any distance I consider advantageous, and I can lambast you with everything from gamma rays and X waves and rays will do fully as much damage as could your solid and material shrapnel. Heh, heh! You can't shoot me if you can't spot me. If you spot me you can't catch me. If you catch me, you can't
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SOUTHERN STAR Space Ships And Space War Page 26 Do you want those things which could possibly operate, or dream-stuff for fantasy mags? The solid missile, to my mind, could not be used. The target would be moving and moving so fast, that only a million-in-one chance would ever allow a bullet or projectile to strike it and do damage, even were the initial impetus of sufficient force to propel the missile to its destination, anywhere up to light years away Not only ballistics, but the most elaborate mathematics imaginable would have to enter into the firing of space guns or space cannon. The trajectory of the offensive missile would have to be plotted, to compensate for the gravitational pull not only of the attacking craft but of the gravitational pull of the enemy craft. in free space; in vacumm, these two bodies would both exert such a force. Also, to strike the opposing ship, the route of the bullet would have to be calculated in order that it could be fired so as to reach a certain exact point in space SIMULTANEOUSLY with the speeding target. If magnetic in nature, the bullet might speed toward its goal, but if magnetic, how would you have it explode? Upon contact, so as to do relatively small damage against thick armorplate? Or should it penetrate and explode? Should it be timed? If so, it would never be efficacious because the exact interval required for it to reach the target could never be surely known. To my mind, a solid projectile, magnetic in nature, is the only kind of missile capable of reaching its intended destination. The first premise has argued that the ships are manageable only as to general direction. Therefore close attack is practically impossible unless tow craft happen to be CONINCIDENTALLY traveling side by side, in which event projectiles MIGHT BE USED. I preclude the use of shrapnel because the pieces would tend to fall free in the direction of their initial velocity, spraying outward and away from each other. The shrapnel sections might all start at the same point, but at a distance of even two miles the different slugs would be so far apart that many of them would entirely miss the target (if aimed true originally). In space the ships would reasonably be much further apart from each other than any two miles. Two hundred miles, even, would be close -- mighty close. We come now to the use of rays, which I advocate not because of plausibility but because of sheer personal lassitude and convenience. Let's use rays by all means. We can originate rays at sixty and hour or better. Death rays, heat rays, could rays, paralysing rays, vibratory rays; and then, too, let's use waves: heat waves, cold waves, radio waves, brain waves, electrical waves, etc., etc., etc. I, too, deplore the use of gravitational screens, force screens, and energy screens and zones of force. See Smith, Campbell, Hamilton -- anybody. We have, you see, reached the well-known impasse. You believe in you getting close enough to me to make it practical. Of course I'm not particularly dangerous to you either, with my purely imaginary rays, but I can still shoot at you from any distance I consider advantageous, and I can lambast you with everything from gamma rays and X waves and rays will do fully as much damage as could your solid and material shrapnel. Heh, heh! You can't shoot me if you can't spot me. If you spot me you can't catch me. If you catch me, you can't
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