Re: [GZG] Re: Mines

[Oerjan Ariander <oerjan.ariander@xxxxxxxxx>]

John Tailby wrote:

> > It would - but it would be a robotic combat vessel rather than a space 
> > mine. Heck, if you have this kind of sensor net there's no reason why you 
> > couldn't plug your crewed warships into it as well!
> You could plug your crewed vessels into the sensor net and it then becomes 
> like a SOSUS line. This has already been done with the Hirogen in Star 
> Trek that use a sensor net to locate their prey. For this to work you need 
> your sensors to be able to signal to other sensors via hyperspace and 
> hence to the ships without the enemy detecting the signals so your ships 
> know where to go.

Sure, but these sensor-relay issues apply just as much to robotic combat 
vessels as to live-crewed ones.

> Alternatively for this to work you have to have a fleet of crewed ships on 
> standby. The crew get bored and performance drops off on garrison duties. 
> Plus life support for the crew becomes more of a problem unless you have 
> recycling to a very high efficiency level. A computer controlled vessel 
> could wait patiently for years without a drop off in efficiency.

As long as no bugs develop in its programming... let's pray they don't use 
MicroSoft software :-/ (IIRC the USN had certain problems with MS software 
a few years ago...)

> One of the worst things about automated weapon systems is they can persist 
> for years after they were meant to.

If they're poorly designed (and yes, many older types of land mines are IMO 
criminally poorly designed in that respect!). Well-designed automated 
weapons OTOH are equipped with shut-down timers, specifically to prevent 
them from persisting after they're meant to.

> In space, decay rates would be much lower

Hm... I'm not entirely sure that all of the astronomer members of this list 
would agree with that. Space can be an extremely harsh environment.

> If you built your defences with say a factory on a nearby asteroid then it 
> could keep on making more mines to replenish losses.

As long as there's also some sort of mechanism for deploying the mines, 
sure... preferrably one that is as stealthy as the mines themselves. (If 
the mines can't deploy away from the factory you'll eventually end up with 
a *very* concentrated minefield; and if they can't deploy stealthily the 
enemy will fairly soon learn not just where the mines are but also where 
the factory is.)

Regards,

Oerjan
oerjan.ariander@xxxxxxxxx

"Life is like a sewer.
 What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
-Hen3ry

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