Nukes in Space

[Scyld]

Wouldn't the detonation of a nuclear warhead in space be considerably less effective than the detonation of the same in an atmosphere? From what I understand, it would simply create a fireball, and that's about it. Now, this fireball would be equivalent to sitting in the heart of a star, which is considerable, but even naquaduh enhanced, you're not hitting with anything that even begins to approach the full possible intensity of the weapon.

[SG-1ssm]

I don't think much would happen because there wouldn't be a pressure wave from the explosion...it would probably be a flash and some radiation.

[Unorthodox]

You are correct. In fact, many weapons on the show aren't possible (or practical): particle weapons, energy weapons, plasma weapons, transporters, just to name a few. But you are correct: nuclear weapons do squat, unless you place a nuclear-shape charge (with the blast-cone facing the impact site) at the tip of a missle, and allow the missle to impact the target. Then the kenetic forces will appy to the greatest effect. As for other weapons...

-Particle weapons require particles of the same charge, which spreads the particles out (like charges repulse) and makes it useless..
-Energy tends to spread out as well (think of a flashlight). The only reason a laser works is because it's a small ammount of light (energy) that's incredibly focused. An energy-based blast would spread out quickly, like a particle blast.
-Plasma is really just superheated gases, and therefore tends to expand very rapidly. The only reasons you'll find it in big balls we call "stars" are because of the immense gravitational pulls these "stars" cores have.
-Transporters work on the principle that matter can be converted to energy, and then back to matter at the destination. Unfortunately, the power required (not to mention the processing power of the computer running the show) would be astronomical - and highly impractical - for such a menial task.

[Scyld]

Hey, maybe the ineffectiveness of nukes in space explains why they never seem to work against Goa'uld shields. ;D

[aAnubiSs]

Hey, maybe the ineffectiveness of nukes in space explains why they never seem to work against Goa'uld shields. ;D

They never detonate

For a projectile to be more effective than a nuke it has to move at... 7PSL IIRC. Our weaponry aren't close to that.

[HAL]

you do know that we have devolped a type of transporter in RL?


Maybe it can only transport 1 atom but still :

[Bragi]

-Transporters work on the principle that matter can be converted to energy, and then back to matter at the destination. Unfortunately, the power required (not to mention the processing power of the computer running the show) would be astronomical - and highly impractical - for such a menial task.

Not to mention Heisenberg.

[aAnubiSs]

you do know that we have devolped a type of transporter in RL?


Maybe it can only transport 1 atom but still :

We teleported a photon with certain characteristics in real life

We've had transporters for 1000s of years. They're called Horses

[lionel_pendergast_rocks]

Nukes wouldnt do anything if detonated in cold space, no, but if it actuually hit something, a lot of the shockwave would have somewhere to go. I dont see the point of blowing them up in the middle of nowhere.

[aAnubiSs]

In space the "only" thing a nuke does is to vaporize a few cubic meters of hull and give the crew a nice sunburn. A nuke has to detonate relativly close to the hull to be effective.

The 'shockwave' is overpressure in the atmosphere, which space doesn't have, hence no 'shockwave'. The only shockwave from a nuke in space is the material that made up the rocket.

[Zamboni]

-Particle weapons require particles of the same charge, which spreads the particles out (like charges repulse) and makes it useless..
-Energy tends to spread out as well (think of a flashlight). The only reason a laser works is because it's a small ammount of light (energy) that's incredibly focused. An energy-based blast would spread out quickly, like a particle blast.
-Plasma is really just superheated gases, and therefore tends to expand very rapidly. The only reasons you'll find it in big balls we call "stars" are because of the immense gravitational pulls these "stars" cores have.
-Transporters work on the principle that matter can be converted to energy, and then back to matter at the destination. Unfortunately, the power required (not to mention the processing power of the computer running the show) would be astronomical - and highly impractical - for such a menial task.

- Yes, charged particles do repel each other, but not if you fire neutrons
- Energy does spread out easy, but if you can find some way to enclose it until impact then it would work like a normal explosive. Given the amount of technology in SG universe this doesn't seem so hard
- Plasma weapons would work on a similar logic as the energy weapons, just need a way to prevent loss of energy within firing range
- Transporters: I agree with your points, it would require a vast amount of resources to make it possible. However it is not impractical. I mean, we use computers to play games and spam on the internet... Moving long distances would seem a more amiable function than say, spam mails.

[Scyld]

- Energy does spread out easy, but if you can find some way to enclose it until impact then it would work like a normal explosive. Given the amount of technology in SG universe this doesn't seem so hard

Magnets.

[UltraMarioMan]

Focus the Nuclear blast into a beam using shiekds instant super energy weapon.

[V-MAN]

Focus the Nuclear blast into a beam using shiekds instant super energy weapon.

urm????????????????

[aAnubiSs]

Lets see. Lets take a regular SG-verse NqNuke at 1200MT. Ofc these 1200MT aren't nicely distributed over one second, more like one milisecond. So for a shield to be able to withstand this, it would either need a 1200GT/1.2TT buffer, or the nuclear missiles shield reactor would have to have an output above 5e21W

If you had a reactor capable of putting out 5E21 Watt then you wouldn't exactly need a nuclear missile