RE: Asteroids in Space (was: RE: FT Taskforce and Fleet Actions)

On Tue, 7 Aug 2001, Ryan M Gill wrote:

> At 9:58 AM -0400 8/7/01, Mark 'Indy' Kochte wrote:
> 
> >
> >Never be able to.*  THerefore the easiest solution is to assume
> >that ships are composed of alloys that can *take* this kind
> >of punishment in day-to-day space travel (after all, we ARE
> >talking about ships surviving MT missile hits, where MT missiles
> >are supposed to have the destructive power equivalent to nukes ;-).
> 
> One issue is whether or not the detonation of the Nuke is point or 
> proximate to the ship. If it strikes the ship and detonates, then I'd 
> expect these ships to be pretty stern stuff. If they are detonating 
> proximate to the ship, then it isn't as big an issue. You don't get 
> quite the shockwave in space as I understand it. There isn't an 
> atmosphere to compress to make that wave. You do of course have nice 
> thermal and radiation effects though.

Yep! I think this was heavily covered in an earlier thread a few months
back? I'm more of a basic grunt astronomer, not a nuclear physicist, so
I
stayed pretty much out of it. ;-)