Re: Damage Control and CVs

Ryan M Gill wrote:
 
> Hasn't Forrest Fire^h^h^h^h^h Forestal been ablize twice?

The only thing that I find amazing is the relative scarcity of disasters
aboard CVs.

Consider this: you're packing several thousand tonnes of high
explosives,  and more thousand tonnes of highly inflammable jetfuel in a
big steel box. Add in either more thousand tonnes of fuel oil, or a
number of really small nuclear reactors in the same box. Then, instead
of having "no flames within 100m", have really hot aircraft components
and large jets of afterburner flame on top. Oh yes, and controlled
crashes of multi-tonne aircraft coming it at 200 kph or more. For spice,
add the near-certainty of at least one aircraft crashing into it every
year, sometimes many more. THEN instead of having it on a nice, stable
patch of ground, put it at sea where the bombs etc can roll around and
fuel slosh everywhere. Add a small chance of a major collision (eg the
one with USS Belknap). Finally, make it crewed not by a handful of
picked experts and extensive "fail-safe" automation, but 6000 or so
crew, some sick, some tired, some just plain incompetent, some not
giving a flying whatever, and some who "haven't got the word.". 

It was the latter that caused the many problems with CV catastrophes in
the late 60s. Morale was in the toilet, and drug use rife.

In any event, I'd say that USN CVs are some of the toughest ships to
take out by any means. Simply because if they weren't, there'd be far
fewer of them still afloat after all these years of "peacetime" hazards.
It says a lot for the USN's standards of professionalism too.

Which leads us to things vaguely On Topic (!!). When we have several
kilotonnes of spacecraft capable of travelling at megametre/sec speeds
relative to planets, what are the peacetime safety implications? What's
the "safe distance" for orbit, so if the reactor blows, the nearby
inhabited planet remains so. (still inhabited, that is)?
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