Re: How big is a troopship? [DS/FT/SG2] (and what it all means)

In a message dated 9/23/99 8:35:26 PM Central Daylight Time,
los@cris.com 
writes:

<< 
 The ship is a thousand feet up, he can be miles away. Nor do nuclear
weapons 
HAVE to
 be in the high yeild range. I'm not an expert on nucelar weapons 
construction but they
 have shrunk from the size of a VW bus to something I can stick in a 
rucksack. No
 reason to supose they won't get smaller if necessity demands it.
Especially 
for
 subkiloton yield devices. There are plenty of propellor heads on this
list 
that can
 lay out the specifics if I'm wrong.
  >>

If you are dealing with a fission device using plutonium or U-235 you
MUST 
have sufficient material to create a critical mass or you get a fizzle
at 
best (kind a China syndrome thing on a very small scale). In sufficent
mass, 
no fission. Minimum mass pretty much dictates you're not going to get
any 
lighter than these things already are. No shoulder launch missile is
likely 
to  get that heavy fora warhead, are they?