Defenses for Extraterrestrial Conflicts

Which is more useful: the perfect weapon, or the impenetrable shield?

A debate could be had on that that could last for hours, without resolution.  But rather than debate which is more important, we’ll touch on how the Tyberian Empire employs each.

As the title suggests, we’ll start with the shield, since most will be more interested in the weapons anyway (that’s how this works, right?)

The Shield(s)

In science fiction, there have been various methods for describing defensive measures.  Most typical, a parabolic bubble surrounding a vessel and everything just bouncing off or being absorbed.  After several direct strikes by typically light-energy based weapons, this ‘shield is corrupted, and a prescient difficulty is faced in restoring it to its former glory (likely because of ensuing attacks).  While the ‘shield’ is not always parabolic, it is usually assumed to be some distance from the vessel it protects.  I have read of some that use a combination of the hull and electrical current, directly applying the energies to the existing plating, offering additional protection from harm, though there is not an extra barrier in this instance.

I thought about all of these while giving some thought to other methods beyond these.  The chosen approach is something more distinct.

My first concern was with light-energy weapons (lasers, duh).  While sufficient energy will allow a ‘laser’ to fire even with the effects of the atmosphere to distort it, in empty space such a weapon would be several times more destructive.  The thing I looked at was more the effect the laser is attempting to overcome by firing in through the air, and even why.

A laser is a concentrated beam of light, often amplified and focused, to minimize the distortion.  The more focused (in the case of a laser, it is typically a single color and wavelength), the better.  There is one small problem with these, as pointed out in this article:

Any weapon that relies upon light traveling through the atmosphere runs into the problems of dust, humidity, and fog—features which absorb and scatter the laser energy. In addition, atmospheric distortions such as turbulence can deflect a beam of light. And at the same time that the photons in a laser’s beam must overcome all of these obstacles, they must also stay focused in a tight column and keep advancing forward without diminishing in power. Meanwhile, the user of the laser weapon must account for the movement of the target, the movement of the firing platform, and any decoys, dummies, or multiple war warheads that the enemy throws up.

– Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

While there are several things being brought up as problems for lasers, the primary obstacle we will focus on is distortion, mostly in the form of dust, clouds, maybe even snow and rain.  These objects often refract laser light, forcing it from its coherent (and intensified) beam.  I wondered though in space how to recreate such a state, and be able to use it as a ‘shield.’

A form of dust seemed the most plausible since water will freeze in space, and lose its effectiveness as the heat dissipates it. But dust would be finite, the vessel would likely need to remain stationary, and it wouldn’t make sense have cavernous reserves of an item that will likely be used on limited occasions, given the fuel requirements to ship it around.  And while even a military vessel will do that if it needed to be done, it’s worth noting that such an effort would limit the number of engagements (or even the length of said engagements).

One thing I’ve always questioned with space conflicts is the reliance exclusively on light-energy weapons (I’ll touch on explosive warheads shortly).  Yes, they look pretty and futuristic, but if your goal is to WIN a battle, not merely to HAVE one, you probably won’t use a typical complement of weapons.

I decided that the protective barrier (the Tyberian Military refer to it as a ‘field’) would take on a physical form, rather than be energy.  Though, this is not to say an electromotive force is not needed.  The shape and form would most closely resemble this:

[image error]Aerogel – the cloud you can hold!

I thought of aerogel.  It had the appearance I sought and already performs similarly, even with no modifications.  And even x-aerogel adds strength and impact resistance to the equation.  Because of its lack of mass, it would make carrying it along minimally impactful, and given its natural transparency, it wouldn’t obscure any threat.

The only real problem with it is that it is solid.  In practical terms,  a ship likely would have the aerogel ‘deployed’ like typical armor-plating, rather than a ‘field’ that appears as needed.  And while a cloud-like ship might make for an interesting looking vessel (while difficult to maintain an oxygen-rich environment within.  And privacy, duh), I had already determined the appearance of their ships, so I decided that the aerogel would simply take a cloud-like appearance over the vessel. The reasoning is that you can defend the ship from both light-energy and explosive-warhead  or even solid-projectile type weapons.  While I’ve only seen solid projectiles used once in a Science fiction movie, and probably it is utilized more often in novels than anywhere, It seems obvious to need defensive measures that take this into account.

What would make this variant of aerogel different is that it would be made ‘as needed,’ meaning it would be formed and deployed when the field is needed.  When not in use, the materials used are stored for future use (as base components, which we’ll discuss later) in this or any other required capacity.

Now while having a sound defense is important, having an offensive capacity is also needed, especially when dealing with the threats faced in The Silent Invader.  Next week, we will look at one weapon that augments their offense.

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