So it popped into my head earlier, thinking about meteorite impacts and how devastating they can be due to their mass and speed. then i thought about missiles, and did some calculations.
so first i calculated that each msp is equal to one 20th of a HS, meaning 1 msp is equal to 2. 5 tonnes
(1 Msp thruster produces 5% the thrust of a 1HS engine, so i am assuming that the EP is equal by weight and just uses more fuel).
then i looked at the speed, and at my point in the game with internal confinement drives i managed to get a size 6 missile to 112,000 km/s, or 112,000,000 meters a second for a 15 tonne missile.
so lets do a little maths, to calculate the kinetic energy we simply multiply the Mass by the missile Velocity.
112,000,000 m/s X 15,000 kg = 1680 Terra joules of energy, or 401 kilotons of TNT all in one point of impact. this is the same yield as 84 fat man nuclear bombs, the main difference is that its not an explosion, but merely a BIG bullet.
using the cobalt warheads at my stage in the game which are 5 times more powerful than conventional explosives, (which i am assuming "conventional" means TNT) you would need to have a warhead weighing 80,200 tonnes to equal the same yield.
and all this is without even optimising for as much kinetic energy as possible, if it were in the game, you could potentially build huge missiles that could blow up planets with end-game tech
Any thoughts on this? i think its kinda funny thinking about how OP missiles would be if kinetic energy mattered