Earth Space Weaponry

[metroid]

You are telling me a space shuttle made in the 1970's by US, managed by NASA and contracted to the lowest bidders, can outrun a rail gun round with plenty of speed to spare?
And you are bringing that thing to fight the ORI?

So let's get rid of our guns and fire shuttles at that. Some collision is bound to do damage

[RobJones]

we hear alot of complaining about the Railguns on the Deady class ships, maybe even if we didnt replace the Gun, we can replace the round itself, to a more destructive/explosive/penetrating round? Naquada enhanced - anything like that?

[Milleniumlance]

are you talking MAIN guns or POINT DEFENSE guns..these are the MAIN guns

[ancientaction]

Phasers? Magnets? BeBe gun?

[Bragi]

Thanks for explaining that, but what I ment was, Because in space there are less forces acting against the projectile in space than on earth, wouldn't it be able to reach greater speeds?

No.

Because there is no drag as a result of atmosphere, an object will take longer to slow down in space. But an object cannot accelerate or decelerate without a force acting on it.

So once you've fired your gun, it will stay at its launch speed until acted on by another force (in space other forces tend to be pockets of gravity, since the interstellar medium is so diffuse). Now, if you were to fire your gun, then have a steady propellant continue to accelerate it after it's launch, then yes, it would continue to increase in speed. Or, your bullet could be accelerated by gravity, if it entered the orbit of a large body at the right trajectory. Each time it got a gravity boost, its forward momentum would cary it on until acted on by another force, which would either slow it down or speed it up.

But the simple answer to your question is "no" as I said above.

Again....... someone smarter than me please set me straight on this, because I'm not 100% sure I'm right.

[Major Tyler]

we hear alot of complaining about the Railguns on the Deady class ships, maybe even if we didnt replace the Gun, we can replace the round itself, to a more destructive/explosive/penetrating round? Naquada enhanced - anything like that?

I proposed a similar idea in another thread...

Well, I would think that the raw kinetic energy of the railguns might deplete shields to some degree, so if energy weapons are out of our reach, we should consider converting the "rail rounds" into something that packs a bit more of a punch. I was thinking naquadah/potassium rounds.

Remember in "Singularity" when they combined one atom of naquadah and one atom of potassium in the underground bomb chamber and it created a huge explosion? Well, if our rail rounds consisted of NaqPos (separated, of course) and were designed in such a way that the naquadah and potassium would contact each other on impact, I'd be willing to bet they'd bring down shields really quickly. The main issue would be having a consistant supply of expendable naquadah, but the fact that we would only need a few atoms per round mitigates that issue.

[RobJones]

I proposed a similar idea in another thread...

Well, I would think that the raw kinetic energy of the railguns might deplete shields to some degree, so if energy weapons are out of our reach, we should consider converting the "rail rounds" into something that packs a bit more of a punch. I was thinking naquadah/potassium rounds.

Remember in "Singularity" when they combined one atom of naquadah and one atom of potassium in the underground bomb chamber and it created a huge explosion? Well, if our rail rounds consisted of NaqPos (separated, of course) and were designed in such a way that the naquadah and potassium would contact each other on impact, I'd be willing to bet they'd bring down shields really quickly. The main issue would be having a consistant supply of expendable naquadah, but the fact that we would only need a few atoms per round mitigates that issue.

yeah thats a very good idea. only 1 draw back that comes to mind is making sure that the rounds are made to the highest of quality and that no one drops it during storage etc! wouldnt want on of those things going off in the ammuntion lockers lol. but yeah, good idea

[Imgnryflagdotcom]

Thanks for explaining that, but what I ment was, Because in space there are less forces acting against the projectile in space than on earth, wouldn't it be able to reach greater speeds?

Physics, an object will not start moving or stop unless another force starts it or stops it. So if a projectile moves on earth, there is nothing to speed it up after the initial explosion inside the barrel of the gun, but it slows down because the air around the gun is slowing it down. In space, there is nothing to slow the projectile down, so it will keep moving until it hits something. But the projectile will not speed up as well because after it is fired, there is nothing pushing on it.

That's why if you can fire a projectile lets say from the Daedalus at the exact direction of Chulak which is a ways away, the projectile will keep going until either it hits chulak or it collides with another ship or asteroid which has blocked its path.

[freyr's mother]

are you talking MAIN guns or POINT DEFENSE guns..these are the MAIN guns

Do you have a point, because the main railguns still dont do crap.

[deadman]

They really need to be more creative with the rail guns, why not shoot mini nukes?

[freyr's mother]

They really need to be more creative with the rail guns, why not shoot mini nukes?

Because they would have to change the barrel size and TPTB wont give us one stupid energy weapon.

[Major Tyler]

They really need to be more creative with the rail guns, why not shoot mini nukes?

Because "mini" nukes aren't very mini, and you'd have to make them by the tens of thousands (expensive) for them to take advantage of the rapid-fire aspect of the railguns.

[deadman]

If they can build 3 304s in under a year, they can mass produce mini nukes

[Major Tyler]

If they can build 3 304s in under a year, they can mass produce mini nukes

But they probably wouldn't.

[Avatar28]

So let's get rid of our guns and fire shuttles at that. Some collision is bound to do damage

If you're going to do that, just sit back a few hundred miles off and fire your missiles. If they launch and burn for a few minutes on the way to the target they would be approaching similar speeds since it takes the shuttle several minutes to reach those speeds, not to mention an ungodly amount of fuel.