Sorry. Aurora Mass Drivers can't move 'rock'. The trans-newtonian physics they operate on can only hurl TN elements. You'll have to bombard your enemy with expensive minerals, not free dirt.
why?
'Cause them's the rules.
Presumably because it was considered unbalancing to allow cheap dirt.
Sorry. Aurora Mass Drivers can't move 'rock'. The trans-newtonian physics they operate on can only hurl TN elements. You'll have to bombard your enemy with expensive minerals, not free dirt.
And if you have a human meatbag encased in a single occupant sized TN element composed space coffin?
Given the number of tons of TNE in a mass driver packet, the human (or other species) meatbag is a rounding error.
Sorry. Aurora Mass Drivers can't move 'rock'. The trans-newtonian physics they operate on can only hurl TN elements. You'll have to bombard your enemy with expensive minerals, not free dirt.
And if you have a human meatbag encased in a single occupant sized TN element composed space coffin?
Sorry. Aurora Mass Drivers can't move 'rock'. The trans-newtonian physics they operate on can only hurl TN elements. You'll have to bombard your enemy with expensive minerals, not free dirt.
why?
Sorry. Aurora Mass Drivers can't move 'rock'. The trans-newtonian physics they operate on can only hurl TN elements. You'll have to bombard your enemy with expensive minerals, not free dirt.
Sorry. Aurora Mass Drivers can't move 'rock'. The trans-newtonian physics they operate on can only hurl TN elements. You'll have to bombard your enemy with expensive minerals, not free dirt.
My first reaction to the idea is why exactly would they need to be missiles with their own propulsion and other guidance system launched at destinations?
We're already launching thousands upon thousands of tons of minerals at a time from mass drivers from one planet to another and having them arrive safely at the destination. So if a civilisation was so inclined why wouldn't they simply develop more sturdy shipping coffins that hold 1 person with enough internal systems just to keep the occupant alive. And then the planetary mass drivers could launch thousands of colonists at a time at the destination.
At the end of the day, solving the 'surviving launching people in space coffins from mass drivers' engineering problem would probably be more efficient and practical then developing a consumable one-use intelligent human missile system approach.
I question the actual usefulness, but the idea of an opposed colonization effort does sound vaguely hilarious to me.
e: so it just hit me, what about missile drop pods for infantry and such? that could be pretty cool, thematically speaking. huge launch tubes filled with mechs and tanks and troops and stuff.
https://youtu.be/kyIMegaOxyg?t=42
