Re: An idea for a new weapon (semi-OT]

On Wed, 21 Oct 1998, Thomas Barclay wrote:
> This gives me some ideas for a nasty attack in the FT realm.

solar flares arise due to distortions and loops and things in the sun's
magnetic field. to provoke a solar flare, you will need to generate a
magnetic field of magnitude and expanse comparable to one of these
distortions. this cannot be done (except in manga, of course).

on the other hand, you might be able to slap the sun with something
(rock, nuke, grav bomb) and induce a distortion in a controlled manner.
thus, the sun provides the power and you just have to trigger it.

> Then your forces go in. Comms is down, but you have pre-set 
> orders.

confucius, he say: "no plan survives contact with the enemy". with no
comms, you couldn't react to anything which happened. also, if your
radio
is down, your radar is down, and you can't shoot. otoh, optics would
still
be up, so laser comms, lidar and telescopes would be fine. just like the
good old days.

> You've disrupted the power grid and overloaded transformers 
> and the like all over.

assuming you wait for the storm to subside, ok. otherwise, you get hit
too, and you don't have an atmosphere and a magnetic field to protect
you.

> Sounds nasty to me. 

i'll drink to that.

Tom