Battlestar Galatica tech.

[skrip00]

BattleStars are too massive to die from minor impacts. They are like 10 times larger than a Nimitz class Aircraft carrier, and a Nimitz can survive a 600kg missile hit. Granted it will float, but it probably cant fight...

[walterIsTheMan]

The colonials certainly have revolutionary materials technology. The fact that the Galactica can withstand multiple nuclear detonations very near its hull testifie to that. Oddly, the mull plating which can withstand a multi-megaton nuclear explosion doesn't seem to be that effective against conventional explosives and impacts.

the hull plating wouldnt have had to be made of some miracle material to survive that. the nuke was probably not multi-megaton. although adama said an h-bomb was used over caprica city, most of the bombs we saw on caprica appeared to be multi-kiloton nuclear explosions, not thermonuclear, so those probably composed the majority of the cylons arsenal. and the result of a nuclear explosion for the most part is heat and radiation. the explosions we see on the ground are a result of the massive pressure wave. the pressure is strong enough to knock down buildings but i doubt it would have that much of an effect on whatever material makes up the galactica's hull

[Three PhDs]

True, but hull plating ca[pible of surviving the heat produce by a nuclear explosion should be able to survive the overpressure of a small conventional explosion.
I suppose that the water storage tanks may have been less armored then the rest of the ship. It isn't like their damage exposed any crew to a vaccume. However, it doesn't make sense to make something that is so vital to the ship even more vulnerable to attack.

The explosion that took them out was from the inside. What do you know about the dambusters?

Explosions in a vaccume don't produce any overpressure, but they do release a great deal of energy in various forms, including heat. Certainly, a nuclear explosion produces enough energy to severely damage any nearby materials even without the advantage of overpressure. It really becomes a matter of how far the ship was from the detonation. The Sun is just a bright flash and some radiation. That doesn't mean that I would want to fly into it. Anything that gets too close will soo melt. Correct me if I am wrong, but I remember Cylon nuclear warheads impacting on the Galactica's hullplating.

The heat would be very quickly dissipated throughout the length and breadth of the hull, and thus the effect wouldn't be all that great.

Logically, an anti-ship nucks would be equiped with shape-charge style liquid penetrators to take advantage of the massive amount of energy released by the reaction. Extreme pressure within a warhead would serve to propel molten metal at very high velocity. The molten penetrator would have a very might probability of defeating the hull armor. Unfortunatly, the cylon warheads don't seem to have been designed specifically to defeat battlestar armor.

Nuclear warheads with shaped charges? Shaped charges are a component of precision weaponry, a nuclear warhead is not precision at all.

[hyzmarca]

Nuclear warheads with shaped charges? Shaped charges are a component of precision weaponry, a nuclear warhead is not precision at all.

They aren't, but they certainly can be. There is simply no practical use for such an weapon on Earth. Amongst the Cylons and the Colonials there is.

[Mirhadi]

I like this discussion. It's about time we had some serious talking on these boards. And I agree on several accounts. The Cylons were using sheer computing power against the Colonials. Also, Galactica is simply too big to be injured by the explosions, which I also agree were probably not multi-megaton. To agree once more, I also think that a nuclear warhead can be precision-engineered. It would take some time and a little ingenuity, but it can be done.

MG

[walterIsTheMan]

They aren't, but they certainly can be. There is simply no practical use for such an weapon on Earth. Amongst the Cylons and the Colonials there is.

if you dont mind me saying, i disagree. the cylons had both the element of suprise and greater numbers. had galactica had the CNP software and networked computers like the rest of the fleet, she would have been a sitting duck like the rest of the ships and enough non-shaped charges would have done the job. whether or not its possible to make shaped nuclear charges is not really rellevant, there was no need for them by the cylons

[SG-1ssm]

BattleStars are too massive to die from minor impacts. They are like 10 times larger than a Nimitz class Aircraft carrier, and a Nimitz can survive a 600kg missile hit. Granted it will float, but it probably cant fight...

Thats only 1,000 lbs which is a small bunker buster.

[Mirhadi]

Not necessarily... the "lord of kobol" may have given them the technology to build cylons. To make their lives easier among the new colonies.

Okay, I just rewatched some episodes, and I need something clarified to make the above statement work. If I have it right, then the Colonies were formed after the war on Kobol. Roslin says that humanity left Kobol after the war on Kobol between the gods, which was pre-Cylon. Since the gods are now myth and legend, that isn't something that would happen in 40 years, so the Colonials had to have come up with the technology for the Cylons on their own.

How's my logic? Do I have the order straight?

MG

[Dr. Pepper Girl]

Okay, I just rewatched some episodes, and I need something clarified to make the above statement work. If I have it right, then the Colonies were formed after the war on Kobol. Roslin says that humanity left Kobol after the war on Kobol between the gods, which was pre-Cylon. Since the gods are now myth and legend, that isn't something that would happen in 40 years, so the Colonials had to have come up with the technology for the Cylons on their own.

How's my logic? Do I have the order straight?

MG

You got it right, they didn't pass on their technology, the colonies had to start over and that is why they have slightly different versions of stuff. Their technology race however was speeded up however as they became aware of the other colonies on the other planets in the solar system.

[Bl4de]

Not even all the ships had FTL drives in the miniseries, and a lot of them like the botanical liner probably weren't old leftover junk ships that people scraped together to get people off the planet, they looked new and what not. Suggesting FTL was a recent (in technology terms.. could be 40 years old) addition in their technology. I wouldn't say they're too advanced...

AI is something we're almost able to achieve today, we already have computers which adapt and learn, create output on their own etc. Not quite "thinking" per se, but then again Cylons were made to serve humans not think, they wouldn't have to be highly advanced to follow orders (I-Robot), but their evolution into a self-sustaining and free will AI is part of the natural order of things, if any futuristic movie about mankind destroying itself through their own creations has taught us anything, it's that all forms of intelligence will one day question their own being and rise as new life form.

I wouldn't go as far as saying that the colonials had to be super advanced to create this. Their city architecture remained old in some places (filmed in Vancouver but they probably could have had a choice of making it all CGI if they wanted, suggesting they wanted the old "modern day" look), the others just looked fancy, we didn't really see many hover cars or anything. A lot of space ships flying around but Starbuck still had a hummer in good condition, and Helo didn't look too surprised to see a wheeled vehicle..

And no lasers... I wouldn't say their technology was too advanced beyond our own. I'd agree with 100-200 years beyond our own.

Now the Cylon technology to create physical copies of humans while remaining a Cylon.. that's different all together, obviously unheard of to the colonials who are dumbfounded that these perfect human replicants are still "machine".

[Mirhadi]

100-200 years sounds roughly about right. I also agree with you about FTL, Bl4de.

One thing to consider when evaluating anyone's level of technology, however, is that certain areas of technology do not advance as quickly as others. For example, a culture could have phenomenal medical capabilities but their aeronautic/astronautic program could be total junk. So, the Colonials may have focused on computers, and in that respect, been extremely advanced. (Just a theory!)

Thanks also to Dr. Pepper Girl for confirming my timeline/sequence of events!

MG

[hyzmarca]

Not even all the ships had FTL drives in the miniseries, and a lot of them like the botanical liner probably weren't old leftover junk ships that people scraped together to get people off the planet, they looked new and what not. Suggesting FTL was a recent (in technology terms.. could be 40 years old) addition in their technology. I wouldn't say they're too advanced...

I disagree. It only suggests that they have little use for FTL. The colonials seemed to remain in their star system with no interest in colonizing other worlds. There is little point in installing FTL drives in ships that will never have any use for them.

[Mirhadi]

I disagree. It only suggests that they have little use for FTL. The colonials seemed to remain in their star system with no interest in colonizing other worlds. There is little point in installing FTL drives in ships that will never have any use for them.

Okay, now that is an extremely valid point. Hmmm.

It's either this, or it's relatively new technology, since, at least on earth, people always want to get places faster.

Lame, I know. Feel free to shoot me down!

MG

[Bl4de]

Hmm yeah, time is money hehe. The colonies seemed pretty far away from each other, if they're in the same solar system that could still mean weeks and weeks away from another planet by conventional means. I forget how long it would take for a space shuttle to reach Mars.. a long time, but think about trying to get from Earth to Pluto and back again. FTL would have to be a way of life. Like the internet.. before the internet communication was meant for people who knew each other.. you knew someone's phone number, address.. sent them letters and called them. You didn't meet new people.. you'd probably go your whole life without talking to a person from Japan or Norway. I'm sure Tauron and let's say Caprica were so far away, without FTL, families could never move away and still keep in touch.

[hyzmarca]

We have airplanes and yet ships are still used for transporting goods. Airplanes are faster but they are more expensive. Ocean travel may take longer it is much less expensive, especially when transporting very large volumes of goods. When goods aren't time-sensitive ocean transport is the most efficient method.

We don't know how much fuel is required for an FTL jump or how much this fuel costs. However, I would assume that FTL engines burn more expensive fuel in much greater quantities. For many uses, the time saved wouldn't justify the extra cost.

The Colonies have to be rather close together. There is a rather limited band of space that would support human life around a star.