Re: Troop Capacity

Richard spake thusly upon matters weighty: 
> Orbital mechanics are.. Low orbit is anything above the atmosphere, 

What are orbits just inside the atmosphere (outer layers)? Other than 
short term...are they not also Low Orbits?

> but not a 'long' way away (kinda fuzzy). Geosynchronous would only be 
> used by space stations/satellites that don't have any drives to speak 
> of, and that want to stay above the same part of the planet. and it's 
> thousands of miles up. FT ships have so much manuever power they can 
> force their own orbits at whatever height they want

True, but running low to the point of being on the edge of the 
atmospheric envelope probably costs in terms of wear and fuel.
  
> Missiles actually probably have to specifically decelerate just 
> before hitting atmosphere after a quick transit from the firing 
> platform, so that they can acquire the target, and drop on it at a 
> less fantastic speed.

And they don't want to skip off an atmosphere (a risk in atmospheric 
entry) nor do they wish to burn up by entering at a totally ludicrous 
speed - they need to survive to reach their destination. They want to 
come in fast, but not superfast. 
 
> Firing ship based missiles, is partly countered by having those
> meters of armor on the planetary defense batteries. Thinking about
> the vulnerability of their sensor systems, it seems likely that there
> would be duplicated sensor systems, and/or portable ones (grav
> trucks, submarines, etc) so that it's difficult to work out where
> they are. They can relay the targeting info into the defense 'grid'
> in general perhaps. 

Traveller proposed a network of these various active and passive 
sensors used to coordinate deep site meson guns (and other weapons 
such as PAs and missiles). You could destroy these sensors, but if 
you only got the active portion, they could still acquire a poorer 
but still workable passive firing solution. Maybe how we should look 
at treating planetary sensors should involve a gradual degradation of 
planetary battery fire as ortillery, aerospace fighters, and spec ops 
disable parts of the sensor net. This degradation could eventually 
result in a non-functional planetary defence, but most likely (since 
the returns might be diminishing) you'd damage the net as badly as 
you could, thus dropping the quality of defender firing solutions (if 
you could kill 95% of the active sites, you'd probably not only 
attrit the ability to hit large targets like orbiting ships but 
totally eliminate the ability to target fighters and such as passive 
solutions aren't too hot for this) and then you'd drop your drop 
pods, assault shuttles, and another few waves of aerospace fighters 
and close air support for your assault. If you could (by damaging 65% 
of the planetary sensor net) reduce your casualties by a factor of 
five, it would make an assault far more feasible. Getting the last 
10% of planetary sensors might take months, but if the defenders are 
whittled down that badly, they won't hit much. 

Just my 2 pence. 

Tom. 

> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Richard Slattery	       richard@mgkc.demon.co.uk
> At present there are such goings-on that everything is at a
standstill. 
>      Sir Boyle Roche
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> 
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