Further thoughts on hitting with lasers

On Tue, 24 Feb 1998, BEST, David wrote:

>I have been doing some number crunching on how difficult it would be to
>hit a ship with lasers once the targeting system had locked on and I
>thought I would share it with you.  This is by no means exhaustive but
>it is accurate for the premises.

Some problems here. If the target ship is moving at constant speed, then
you can aim for any point you like - it's just the same as if it were
standing still. What makes targetting difficult is _manoeuvre_ ability.

Best bet is to compare the transit time of the beam (0.03 seconds for
6,000 miles, for example) with the velocity change the ship can manage
in that time (0.005 m/s if it has 1G acceleration).

It's still the case that, normally, if you can target it you can hit it.
The beam transit time only becomes significant enough to prevent a hit
at much longer distances (or higher accelerations).

Roger

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