Nukes on BSG compared to Nukes on SG

[Major Zoidberg]

Thats why nukes don't work so well in space, but wouldn't you still get the UV flash and the heat generated by the nukes core? (the plutonium)

[ek_elder_common]

yes...a useless weapon to be used in space...the emp generated works nice to disable cylons though...(unless they got around the emp downside of being mechanized...)

[Major Zoidberg]

Thats probably why the cylons turned to organic componets instead of complex electronics. And why you only nuke their ships from the inside

[ek_elder_common]

....the emp is optimised when there is O2...and more cylons die...ship suffers more dam

[Mister Oragahn]

Actually, that's not a problem. Nukes in space operate wildly different than nukes in an atmosphere. On a planet, you've got the fireball, the shockwave, and the mushroom cloud. In space, you'd just have the detonation flash.

What I meant is that the explosions of nukes exploding over the surface of Caprica look different. When seen from the far distance, in space, they're bigger.

[ek_elder_common]

..maybe more powerful...mark VI?

[Mister Oragahn]

It's possible the big fatty nukes can't be fitted to a missile that will move them fast enough to avoid being shot down by colonial PD so they're more or less just dropped from a low orbit with thrusters or planned entry angles to keep them on target only.

In other words their strategic nukes meant specifically for planetary bombardment not ship to ship warfare.

Also, if the season 1 companion book is to be counted as canon then apparently the 50 megaton nukes are just the fighter scale ones.

The nukes that actual basestars fire might be more powerful. That could be another explanation for what's going on here if you don't like the planetary bombardment nukes idea.

I think it was Gaeta who reported that Caprica was hit by 50 MT nukes.
With Basestars, beyond the derelicts of battlestars.

I don't know anything about the companion thingy. What is it?

[McSwift]

I just watched another 2 more episodes on BSG. I was watching the 2 pilot episodes and thought they were great.

Here is what I thought:

1) With the Basestars (Cylon), they fired multiple nukes at a time, sometimes these nukes don't go through and hit the enemy because its slow and it gets knocked out because of weapons fire. Would it be possible for the 304 to do the same kind of strategy though. Build smaller nuclear missiles so that we can launch multiple nukes at a time. Only 1 nuke needs to get through to do some damage.

We can essentially compare the Galactica as a wraith ship since it has no shields.

2) Firing weapons, not in a straight line but in some sort of course. I noticed that the missiles seem to curve during flight and then hit the targets. Could that work for us though?

[McSwift]

Totally forgot:

- Put inertial dampners on the missiles to make them less heavy (therefore capable of going faster)

- Put some fast engines, not sublight, but use ion engines.

- Install some cloaking device on the nuke missiles, by the time the enemy can detect the missile, its too late

[Harekin]

Totally forgot:

- Put inertial dampners on the missiles to make them less heavy (therefore capable of going faster)

- Put some fast engines, not sublight, but use ion engines.

- Install some cloaking device on the nuke missiles, by the time the enemy can detect the missile, its too late

-Weight is nominal in space due to the lack of gravity

-Ion engines are actually in real life VERY slow to get started so would be useless

-Cloaking devices on the missiles would make them too expensive as they cannot be reused(obviously!)

[Sauron18]

Again, it is never said that the basestars themeselves bombarded the planet.

It makes perfect sense for the Cylons to use squadrons of Heavy Raiders and Radiers to bombard the colonies from a high altitude within the planet's atmosphere.

[Sauron18]

last i checked fire needs air to operate....no air in space no fireball...

A nuke is not dynamite, it is the splicing of atoms that creates a ginourmous energy burst.

Energy doesn't need atmosphere to travel.

[Daryl Froggy]

A nuke is not dynamite, it is the splicing of atoms that creates a ginourmous energy burst.

Energy doesn't need atmosphere to travel.

No, no it doesn't. But the enormous shock wave is caused primarily by the "destruction" of air in the immediate area of the blast and the pressure of the atmosphere rushing to fill the "blank" spot.

[freyr's mother]

In 'Ethon' they didn`t know that the satellite had a shield so that could explain the first volley splattering against the shield.
However, you`re right that they should have some sort of weapon by now which detonates before or on contact with the shield. Or one that arms as soon as it is a certain distance from the firing ship so that any impact will set it off but not damage the ship that fired it.
We were supposed to have missiles that could go through shields at one point but they disappeared after one mention ('Tangent') never to be heard of again.

Here's what they should do. Keep constant railgun fire on the enemy shield so you can see the barrier, then detonate the nuke just before it reaches the barrier. That way, you don't even need to add any new sytems to the ships or missiles.

[Ouroboros]

I think it was Gaeta who reported that Caprica was hit by 50 MT nukes.
With Basestars, beyond the derelicts of battlestars.

I don't know anything about the companion thingy. What is it?

I don't have it but apparently it's a book that came out with season 1 of the show.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/184...lance&n=283155

It's got things like history on the Galactica herself and some sparse technical details one of which is 50 megaton fighter scale nukes.

1) With the Basestars (Cylon), they fired multiple nukes at a time, sometimes these nukes don't go through and hit the enemy because its slow and it gets knocked out because of weapons fire. Would it be possible for the 304 to do the same kind of strategy though. Build smaller nuclear missiles so that we can launch multiple nukes at a time. Only 1 nuke needs to get through to do some damage.

There's nothing that should be stopping the 304s from firing multiple missiles the way the cylons do other than commander stupidity.

They don't really need smaller missiles either. The whole spine of a 304 is covered in verticle launch tubes already. There's nothing that should prevent them from firing all those tubes in rapid succession or say, 4-6 at once.

You're also right to point out one thing the Cylon nukes do that the gate ones don't seem to, that being to take twisting evasive paths to avoid being shot down as easily.

I think a Basestar would actually probably do a lot better against a hiveship than the Daedalus has so far, even though it's technologically infearior in a lot of ways.

Oh it wouldn't win or anything but it would probably at least manage to get a few nukes through, especially if it mounted a lot of nukes on it's raiders.