RE: One question that's plagued me about Full Thrust

On Friday, September 26, 1997 7:58 PM, Haun, Gilles, SSG 
[SMTP:haung@Eustis-EMH10.army.mil] wrote:
> Tim,
>
> If we have the tech to put rail guns on aerospace and ground vehicles,
> why are the Kra'vak the only ones to use them on starships.  It would
> seem a natural evolution as would the armoring of a ship.  I've never
> gotten an answer to his from Geo-hex here in the States when I asked.
> Care to shed a little light on it?
>

There are already some good answers on this one

The rail-gun could probably accelerate a projectile to a
good fraction of c (light speed). This would be required
for an effective space weapon.

On the ground you don't need to get anywhere near it
to be effective as the visual horizon is so close.

I conject that the energy requirements for a ground based
gun would be significantly less than a space weapon as the
required effective velocity is lower

The PSB could be that humans don't have efficient enough
guns for space use. The rounds they sling out are OK for
ground combat but too slow for space.

Targetting tech has also been mentioned.

With the human Kra'vak conflict its now feasible that human ships
can start mounting rail guns and armour as they analyse the
captured or destoyed enemy ships and improve their designs.

sincerely
tim jones
--
The stars are matter, We're matter, But it doesn't matter.