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

At 12:15 PM 8/7/01 -0400, Ryan 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.

Well, you've got to get *something* out of it, or the Orion propulsion 
system wouldn't be much use.  Although, to be fair, that relied on bombs

exploding within tens of meters to fifty meters of a solid plate,
generally 
coated with graphite... I'm not sure how thick the plate needed to be,
or 
the graphite, and (of course) how that would relate to FT era starship
hull 
and/or armor.  The Starflight Handbook is, not unsurprisingly, not the 
greatest source of information on how to *destroy* starships.... ^_-

Anyone know more on this?