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Southern Star, v. 1, issue 2, June 1941

Page 28

Rebuttal to S. Ships & S. War     SOUTHERN STAR     Page 28

you won't accidentally push some lever too far. Then you can yank all the levers you want, shoot off in all sorts of directions -- provided you yourself are well tied down, of course -- and you have perfect maneuverability. These fast new fighting planes can't move up or sideways as fast as they can move ahead -- they don't have perfect maneuverability. But your space shop can move in any direction -- relative to the other ship -- with equal ease. Just ducky as long as your power lasts. The net result would be after, perhaps, an hour's fighting, that the combatants would still be traveling in the direction of Alpha Auriga at just about 100 mi./sec, and whatever final component all the little accelerations of their maneuvers had would be added to this speed.They would never have actually changed direction of motion by more than a few seconds of an arc -- and yet, relative to each other, they could have made dives and rolls to their hearts content.
Thus, unless you pull "artificial space drives" and "acceleration compensators" out of the hat, the whole damn space-battle might be reduced to the uninteresting business of seeing which pilot could stand the most acceleration on his innards. If I can stand more acceleration than Xpth, the Martian Wheepsk, I can defeat him in every maneuver, because I can reach higher speeds in any direction in less time. I can catch him, run away from him, or turn rings around him.
All right -- so I've assumed an infinite source of power. To get our space-ships to run at all, we have to assume something. if you have to save fuel, though, you have no maneuverability and you can take that as being final.
Power, of course, would have to be a reaction motor, a rocket of some sort. Even Goodyear tires will skid in a vacuum. Let's ask old Newton again. Sure -- third law. For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction. You produce action and reap the gravy off the reaction. In other words, you have to shove something one way before you can go the other.
"The job's gotta be streamlined for speed." Migawd! Since when did space ships have to be streamlined. Brother, if we are dropping headlong towards the maw of Copernicus in the Lunar vacuum, you can have my parachute, and I'll take your pillow to land on. Thanks.
As for spotting, there's a real problem. Visual spotting would be a tough proposition in a setup where a hundred miles is called damn close. Realize what a hundred-foot space-ship would look like five miles away. Well, visible, yes. But ten miles? Fifteen. Against a very confusing background of very, very many stars? Bad.
So you have to trust to instruments. Magnetism is bad because it is unfortunately polar. Force lines have a habit of going from pole to pole. I'd hate to try to orient myself in the magnetic field of a space-ship -- with any kind of instrument.
Static electricity, now, is much more hopeful. Space ships in going through atmospheres or being bumped by a hydrogen atom or two, or maybe appropriating a few of the electrons the sun-spots are always spewing out, would undoubtedly gain electrical potential. The potential on different ships would differ, too. It would be easy to get a beeline on a highly charged object, even in space, because an electrical field is perfectly radial -- not polar. A "disguise" one could use would be sharp points placed on the outer hull. Corona from these would minimize the charge. A perfectly spherical ship would be easiest to detect. As for weapons, you can take your choice. Aside from convenient rays, I'll use grapeshot myself. Sure. Have a very long-barreled can
(Concluded on page 31)

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Rebuttal to S. Ships & S. War SOUTHERN STAR Page 28 you won't accidentally push some lever too far. Then you can yank all the levers you want, shoot off in all sorts of directions -- provided you yourself are well tied down, of course -- and you have perfect maneuverability. These fast new fighting planes can't move up or sideways as fast as they can move ahead -- they don't have perfect maneuverability. But your space shop can move in any direction -- relative to the other ship -- with equal ease. Just ducky as long as your power lasts. The net result would be after, perhaps, an hour's fighting, that the combatants would still be traveling in the direction of Alpha Auriga at just about 100 mi./sec, and whatever final component all the little accelerations of their maneuvers had would be added to this speed.They would never have actually changed direction of motion by more than a few seconds of an arc -- and yet, relative to each other, they could have made dives and rolls to their hearts content. Thus, unless you pull "artificial space drives" and "acceleration compensators" out of the hat, the whole damn space-battle might be reduced to the uninteresting business of seeing which pilot could stand the most acceleration on his innards. If I can stand more acceleration than Xpth, the Martian Wheepsk, I can defeat him in every maneuver, because I can reach higher speeds in any direction in less time. I can catch him, run away from him, or turn rings around him. All right -- so I've assumed an infinite source of power. To get our space-ships to run at all, we have to assume something. if you have to save fuel, though, you have no maneuverability and you can take that as being final. Power, of course, would have to be a reaction motor, a rocket of some sort. Even Goodyear tires will skid in a vacuum. Let's ask old Newton again. Sure -- third law. For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction. You produce action and reap the gravy off the reaction. In other words, you have to shove something one way before you can go the other. "The job's gotta be streamlined for speed." Migawd! Since when did space ships have to be streamlined. Brother, if we are dropping headlong towards the maw of Copernicus in the Lunar vacuum, you can have my parachute, and I'll take your pillow to land on. Thanks. As for spotting, there's a real problem. Visual spotting would be a tough proposition in a setup where a hundred miles is called damn close. Realize what a hundred-foot space-ship would look like five miles away. Well, visible, yes. But ten miles? Fifteen. Against a very confusing background of very, very many stars? Bad. So you have to trust to instruments. Magnetism is bad because it is unfortunately polar. Force lines have a habit of going from pole to pole. I'd hate to try to orient myself in the magnetic field of a space-ship -- with any kind of instrument. Static electricity, now, is much more hopeful. Space ships in going through atmospheres or being bumped by a hydrogen atom or two, or maybe appropriating a few of the electrons the sun-spots are always spewing out, would undoubtedly gain electrical potential. The potential on different ships would differ, too. It would be easy to get a beeline on a highly charged object, even in space, because an electrical field is perfectly radial -- not polar. A "disguise" one could use would be sharp points placed on the outer hull. Corona from these would minimize the charge. A perfectly spherical ship would be easiest to detect. As for weapons, you can take your choice. Aside from convenient rays, I'll use grapeshot myself. Sure. Have a very long-barreled can (Concluded on page 31)