Why does Earth tech suck, when it shouldn't?

[Magic_Pumpkin]

THere are some good ideas here, but some are slightly problematic. E.g. Shield defeating ceramics are not in existence (Ceramics are used against huamn armor types).

Umm, in Rio Linda, that probably isn't true, and in Stargate, that certainly isn't true. I recall several episodes where Anubis soldiers simply slipped through shields. While we might not be able to quickly copy a ceramic fiber like that, we would certainly be able to fabricate solid plates within months after obtaining samples. Such plates were already demonstrated in a couple SG episodes, in use by the SGC. Remember when O'Neill took a staff blast, and his ceramic plate stopped it?

BTW, TPTB (probably) got their ideas for the Anubis soldiers (and their suits) from the current prototypes and design specifications for battle armor from the US Army's "Future Soldier Program". Which will include, among other things, energy absorbing nanomaterials, to protect our soldiers from both kinetic and projected energy weapons. They will also include strength enhancers, self-contained environments to protect the soldier from bio, chemical, and nuclear hazards, injury repairing features, and a tactical HUD. And their appearance; If you ever saw the promotional materials, you would think you were looking at someone cosplaying as an Anubis soldier. BTW, this program pre-dates the appearance of Anubis's super-soldiers by many years. Oh, and if we are protecting our soldiers from energy weapons, then that must mean... well, you can guess.

The best method of defeating a shield(through penetration) is to use a projectile weapon that is thin enough to penetrate it, or a thin, slow nuke that can pass through a shield Just like a knife.

Well, since shields (outside of magnetic bottles and magnetic tank armor) don't exist in RL, I can't really say anything to the validity of this, but long, thin objects are the worst choices to penetrate the ones that do. As far as nukes, the high energy plasmas and X-rays that are produced by nuclear explosions can be focused into confined cones or beams (this is part of how an H-bomb works). I vaguely recall some discussion of using nuclear bombs to fuel plasma beams to "cut up" large, earth-bound asteroids, and the use of nuclear bomb powered X-ray lasers in SDI. I do know that bomb powered X-ray lasers were used in some research projects, before accelerator produced X-ray lasers became available.

[Magic_Pumpkin]

While I agree that the earth forces should have energy weapons by now either goa'uld or asgard, I would like to make a correction on your railgun specs. Railguns use non explosive projectiles the U.S. Army prototype at Aberdeen Proving Grounds basically uses a large aluminum dart. The projectile is launched by electromagnetic levitation along a track it is the same technology used in bullet trains. THe main drawback no matter how fast it goes is that it is simply a prjectile and eventually they will find an alloy to use as armor against it (i.e.) the odysee not damageing baal's mothership.

Just to correct you, railguns are an electromagnetic device for launching a projectile, like a linear motor (no levitation involved). That projectile may be an aluminum slug, or a complex explosive device. The device at Aberdeen uses aluminum slugs, but this is mainly for prototyping and testing purposes. Aluminum is NOT a good choice against tank armor. The current plan for the railgun team at Aberdeen is to make a replacement for the 120mm cannons on our tanks, which will need to fire a wide range of munitions. The current problem; mobile powersource.

The "Nuclear Rail Gun" I presented has no explosives. It simply relies on the stopping of the projectile to bring the sub-critical masses together into a super-critical mass. I won't go into the gritty details, but basically, the faster you create the super critical mass, the bigger the explosion, so the better their armor stops it, the bigger the explosion. Now, they could make the armor soft, but that's the purpose of the blended metal jacketing. It stays hard against hard armor to penetrate it (or stop hard), and it becomes soft against soft armor to mushroom and quickly arrest the projectile. Oh, and this stuff already exists too. In fact, you can buy it.

[Magic_Pumpkin]

some damn good ideas there, but if we did all that then we wouldnt really have much of a show would we lol

Well, these ideas are for destroying capital ships after all. And energy ablatives are only good against projected energy weapons, not kinetic weapons. So let's say a hive ship gets destroyed. Left behind are hundreds (or thousands) of darts, with one goal in mind. Can we say "kamikaze"? That's probably part of how the ancients were defeated too. Destroy the hive, but what about the swarm?

And of course, there's always "vampee see vampee do". Next we'll be trying to figure out cloaking shields, and ways to fire when cloaked. Of course, a "hyper-leap missile" could always be used as a longer ranged cruise missile. Maybe even used to attack ships already in hyperspace, like when Carter blew up the Asgard's shinny new ship to destroy pursuing replicators; that was in hyperspace.

[robinmdh]

still they could use a weapon like the ancient satalite, i bet the designs are in the atlantis db, as they are probebly for alot of things. after the atlantis ppl sent back part of the db I've been waiting to see atlantian tech being developed, but alas nooo you'd think that if you can fix it you can alos understand how it works etc... and build your own.

i like the rail gun bulets with ceramic's to get trough shields, have you ever played X2, the game has mass drivers, they use a crystal like coating to penatrate shields, they rule. you shoot straight true the enemy shields!

i con't get how the railgun with the jump engene's suposed to work, but if you'd set your slugs to explode after a time the explosion might leak from hyperspace to realspace .. etc if that's wat you mean

[Mr Prophet]

The problem with most of these ideas is the reliance on naquadria for small-scale hyperspace engines. There simply isn't any naquadria, or at least not that much of it. Most of the deposits were destroyed or sealed off in Fallout and what's left is too dangerous to mine.

Naqahdah Enhanced Nuclear Rail Gun

Works in theory, but if the shields even slow it down you're likely to get a premature explosion and you need a contact blast to do the damage - there's no physical shockwave in space and a ship's hull has to be pretty well hardened against heat and radiation if it's going to go anywhere near a star without the protection of an atmosphere.

Hyperspace Rail Cannon
A large, Naqahdah-enhanced nuclear device (1 GTon yield) is fired from a large rail gun, however; the projectile is fired into hyperspace, and programmed to explode in hyperspace in the real-space vacinity of the target, causing havoc.

Is there any evidence that an explosion in hyperspace would do anything to objects in realspace?

Energy Ablative Hull Plating
Coat the ship in energy ablative materials, similar to those used in the Anubis soldier suits. Simple, energy weapons which penetrate the shields are harmlessly dispersed across the hull.

A good one, if the production requirements could be met.

ZPM Recharging Station
A ZPM functions by releasing energy from a sub-space domain. All ZPMs have similar initial energy stores, which indicates they were uniformly manufactured and charged with energy (like batteries), instead of being an exploratory device, like an oil well. To recharge, energy just needs to be added back into the sub-space domain which the ZPM accessed. This can be done by using a stargate as a valve/door, and a shield as a funnel. The source of energy, one of those great big burning balls of hydrogen, which seem to be rather common.

The ZPM draws zero-point energy from an isolated subspace area. Zero-point energy is intrinsic to the universe and it is not stored in the ZPM, nor in the subspace area. The key to the ZPM lies in tapping a universal energy store, not bottling it up. (There are better explanations of ZP energy on the tech boards if you do a search, but I'm pretty sure this is the jist).

When the module is defunct, the energy is not depleted, but rather the entropy in the isolated area is so high that no useful power can be drawn off (an inevitable effect of closing the system). To 'recharge' it you would have to open the subspace area and then reseal it and, as they don't just do this, it is clearly beyond Earth science (as is the direct use of zero-point energy).

Besides, even if it were a battery, you can't recharge a battery just by passing a current through it; even rechargables need the right conectors and converters. Pour radiant thermal energy into a ZPM and all you'd do is melt it.

[V-MAN]

I've been thinking about this although I like the throught of a big ass honking space rail gun for shooting the nukes, all it's going to be really good for is the initial acceleration of the projectile surely? After all missiles travel above Mach 5. In space where there is no air resistance the speed is again going to be much much higher in the region of Mach 30 at least (space shuttles and satalites travel around this speed). I'm only using the Mach to compare speed cos it's easier to read (than typing XX,000Kmp/h) and everyone knows how fast Mach 1 or 2 is etc.

So the deddys missiles once up to full speed are going for the sake of argument Mach 30, is this speed not fast enough or is it the time taken for the missile to get up to this speed that makes it vulnerable to being taken out?

If it's the latter then a big honken rail gun could be and answer because the magnets of the rail gun will be the only things providing the force behind the projectile so it will be leaving the gun at it's maximum speed hopefully Mach 30 or more. If it's the former then will a rail gun be the best option? can it fire the projectile faster than it would go if it was a missile? If not then it might not be worth investing in the big honken rail gun. One other factor is projectiles launched from a rail gun wouldn't have a blazing rocket on the back for all to see it's possible (although unlikely) that such a projectile might have less of a chance of being spotted an taken out by the Wraith.

Personally I don't think the answer lies in a rail gun, I think the answer is going to be in refinement of the missile design. Currently the next generation of cruise missiles in development by the US will be able to take evasive action when targeted by SAM (surface to air missiles) or other anti air ground fire due to spohisticate AI; either by making radical manuvers or launching counter measures. When engaged by an enemy fighter they are able to perform tight high geforce turns (that would render a human pilot unconscious) and thus out turn the attacking human piloted fighter.

So perhaps some sort of missile that is able to evade incoming fire my taking evasive action when enemy fire is coming at it or if a dart is shooting at it? The geforce problem might not apply to a wraith in a dart but a tight turn is still a tight turn. F-302s piloted by humans have the ability to avoid fire directed at them quite easily, question is could a missile be programed to avoid at least some of the fire directed at it? If so then chances are if the deddy fires of a large salvo you've got good odds of scoring a hit.

In the long term tho there needs to be some directed energy weapons being added to the BC-303 and they more than likely will end up something similar to the weapons Hataks are armed with if not better versions that will probably be mostly human designed after reverse engineering some Hatak weapons

[aacid]

Well, since shields (outside of magnetic bottles and magnetic tank armor) don't exist in RL, I can't really say anything to the validity of this, but long, thin objects are the worst choices to penetrate the ones that do. As far as nukes, the high energy plasmas and X-rays that are produced by nuclear explosions can be focused into confined cones or beams (this is part of how an H-bomb works). I vaguely recall some discussion of using nuclear bombs to fuel plasma beams to "cut up" large, earth-bound asteroids, and the use of nuclear bomb powered X-ray lasers in SDI. I do know that bomb powered X-ray lasers were used in some research projects, before accelerator produced X-ray lasers became available.

I'm operating on the assumption that the Goa'uld personal shield uses the same operating principles as their ship shields. In S2, O'Neill shows that the shields are penetrable by small objects with a low kinetic energy when he throws a knife through one.

[Auralis]

Well, a weapon has first of all be fast to reach the target. If it fails in that, it IS complet junk. See the missilee on the deady for a good example.
Second impotant aspect is the ability to actuall damage the target.
See the deadys railguns, basiclay junk here as well, except for small crafts like darts.

Why is that so?
Because earth needs to be weaker to make story telling easier. Writing stories from the pointof the superior force is more difficult to keep entertaining.

All those ueberweapons, sure SGc can build them, but
They wil only get uses a plotdevices, nothing else.

Ever saw the famed shield penetrating missiles in action, no?
Because with them gua'uld ships would not pose a thread anymore.

In short, earth tech does only suck because its supposed to suck to generate a story.

[captainpash]

We need phasres, and warf.

[Publius Aemilius Aper]

Just a thought I've had for a while-as the Wraith Hive Ships are organic, would firing irradiated rail gun pellets at them give their ships radiation sickness of sorts and affect their systems.

It would certainly take the P*ss if we infected warith ships with the common cold and they started malfucntioning lol. The cold thing is just a joke.


Also, if the Sodan can build personal cloaks by following ancient instructions then surely we can do better?

[freyr's mother]

Oh, and this stuff already exists too. In fact, you can buy it.

Where can you buy this. The US Military isn't just going to sell superadvanced technology to random people.

[freyr's mother]

There simply isn't any naquadria, or at least not that much of it. Most of the deposits were destroyed or sealed off in Fallout and what's left is too dangerous to mine.

We learned how to produce naquadria from naquadah in Fallout. It has something to do with the radioactive decay of Deuterium and some other stuff i cant remember because i haven't watched the episode in such a long time.

[AcidSquid]

After reading several posts about how the Daedalus lacks good weapons, I thought it was time to provide the solutions. Designs for modern weapons modified with SG tech to create bad *ss weapons that would 1 shot kill a hive ship, Ha'tak, or even an Ori ship. Oh, and some other fun toys as well.

Naqahdah Enhanced Nuclear Rail Gun
This is a modification of the "Little Boy" uranium bomb, where a super-critical mass is separated into two pieces. One piece acts as a target, while the other piece is shot into it down a barrel. The required velocity is something like 3,000 feet per second (roughly Mach 2). Normally, a high explosive is required to propel the pieces together. The Daedalus's railguns already reach speeds of Mach 5, so all that needs to happen is that the front of the projectile (with one half) stops, while inertia carries the other half (in the rear) into it, creating a super-critical mass. We make the barrel out of a strong Trinium-Naqahdah alloy to avoid deformation, and provide a boost to the nuclear explosion. The middle casing should be made of blended metal to aid in the arrest of the projectile, and the outside should be coated in an energy ablative ceramic (like that used in the staff-proofed vests or Anubis soldier suits) so that the projectile penetrates shields. Some Nagahdria could be added to further enhance the yield. The result: rapid-fire, shield penetrating, instant death.

Shield Penetrating Projectiles
Coat normal rail gun projectiles with shield penetrating ceramics, then slice-and-dice, selectively disabling enemy systems, right through their shields (until their shield generators get destroyed).

Hyper-Leap Naqahdria Missile
This is basically an X-302, but stripped down to the hyper drive, inertial dampeners, and Naqahdria reactor, and then repackaged into a missile. The idea is very simple, and almost already used in the series. The missile launches, acquires the target, and effects a hyperspace jump into the target, where the Nagahdria reactor overloads. Shields are meaningless.

Hyperspace Rail Cannon
A large, Naqahdah-enhanced nuclear device (1 GTon yield) is fired from a large rail gun, however; the projectile is fired into hyperspace, and programmed to explode in hyperspace in the real-space vacinity of the target, causing havoc.

Leap Rail Cannon
The projectile is composed of a Naqahdria reactor and a hyperspace drive coil. The reactor is activated and used to power up the drive coil before the projectile is launched. On launch, the projectile is fired into hyperspace (initial stable window created from the ship's power), and programmed to overload into the drive coil once it reaches the target location. The result: a highly unstable hyperspace window centered on the target, spewing forth a Naqahdria reactor overload.

Energy Ablative Hull Plating
Coat the ship in energy ablative materials, similar to those used in the Anubis soldier suits. Simple, energy weapons which penetrate the shields are harmlessly dispersed across the hull.

Drone Replacement
Miniaturize the anti-inertia drives in the X-302, and put them in a missile with a small Naqahdah reactor (or a large capacitor), and a small shield generator. The reactor powers the anti-inertia coils and shield, giving the missile increased speed, maneuverability, and possible shield/hull penetrating ability. The reactor (or battery) expends the rest of its energy explosively on impact.

ZPM Recharging Station
A ZPM functions by releasing energy from a sub-space domain. All ZPMs have similar initial energy stores, which indicates they were uniformly manufactured and charged with energy (like batteries), instead of being an exploratory device, like an oil well. To recharge, energy just needs to be added back into the sub-space domain which the ZPM accessed. This can be done by using a stargate as a valve/door, and a shield as a funnel. The source of energy, one of those great big burning balls of hydrogen, which seem to be rather common.

Anyway, just a few toys I'm sure we could figure out pretty darned fast, after exposure to the things that have come through the stargate.

I had to scroll down just to quote, But
Why does Langaran Tech suck?

[NakedJehutyV2]

98% good ideas. rest suck. but earth can't do it. not advanced enough. we suck

[Mr Prophet]

We learned how to produce naquadria from naquadah in Fallout. It has something to do with the radioactive decay of Deuterium and some other stuff i cant remember because i haven't watched the episode in such a long time.

And producing it tends to split planets in half. Manufacturing naquadria was a mug's game.