Re: DS2-Orbital Bombardment

Jonathan White <zzalsjfw@fs2.mcc.ac.uk> wrote:
> I alwayts wondered about the ack of deviation of ortillery. OK so they
are probably using some sort of smart projectile, but if standard
artillery
can deviate, why can't ortillery that is coming down from 10 times the
range?
	On and off table artiller in DSII doesn't deviate. It hits the
area
designated. Ortillery or orbital artillery does deviate. It can miss the
area designated and go somewhere nearby. I can't remember the exact
procedure as my new DSII book hasn't arrived from Australia yet :-(.
	In MT, the orbital artillery weapons system doesn't need
ammunition, so
I've assumed that it's a beam weapon, like the class 1 and better main
weapon systems in FT. As to why ortillery deviates, I've assumed that
the
atmosphere bends or diffracts the beam unpredicatably when the beam is
fired at long slant ranges with high power or that communications
between
the space navy and the army get a little confused.

> It's not that straightforward unfortunately. Firstly you can do an
orbit
in the same time at different heights by travelling at different speeds.
Satellites don't do that but a powered spaceship could.
	In the rules in MT, the ortillery platform seems to be in orbit.
Which
seems to fit cyberpunk views of orbital weapon platforms in low quick
orbits.

>Secondly it rather depends if you are orbiting with or against the
planets
rotation :). If they aren't using their own power and are against the
rotation a 1.5 hour orbit is *very* low.
	How low? Let's take the average and use a polar orbit or do all
three
cases, with, against and across the rotation of the earth.
	Didn't Sputnik orbit the earth every 90 minutes? I could be
wrong as I was
very young at the time and my digital stop watch wasn't working... ;)

Andrew Martin
Whose StarGrunt book _hasn't_ been stolen.
Al.Bri@xtra.co.nz
http://members.xoom.com/AndrewMartin/
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