Missed shots

[Rex R]

So what happens to photon torpedos that miss their targets? Or for that matter projectiles in other space opera stories

 

[neil_w]

Good question. What about pew-pew energy beam shots, do they just travel forever?

How about the endless eternal debris fields created from all the destruction?

I fear we will all be disappointed in the realities of our space-opera future...

 

[Pappy]

i think some may turn into goldfish crackers. just a guess.

 

[prfesser]

Seriously...according to one book a torpedo has matter and antimatter contained in a "photo-magnetic field" or some such(?). I don't know how long the power supply in a torpedo would last, but presumably the power runs out (within a programmed distance, like a regular torpedo). At which time either the antimatter is ejected, or the field collapses and poof.

Unlike debris around Earth that is more or less in thrall from gravity, the debris of an interstellar explosion would keep spreading out for a long, long time and would occupy a LOT of space. Within a few hours you'd probably have one grain-of-sand sized chunk of debris every 1000 cubic kilometers.

 

[David Schwantz]

the torpedo's go until they hit the space fish from that other thread

 

[teepot]

Believe it or not, I have considered this. If you used a projectile weapon. The bullets would go forever until they hit something solid, like a planet. Think an A-10 gun. Laser might attenuate enough over time to no longer be dangerous. Perhaps the same thing with a particle beam. A laser wouldn't make a debris field. It would just pop a hole in the target. A Maser would cook anything inside the target ship. Again no debris field. A explosive weapon could be dangerous to the ship that fired the missile if the two ships were relatively close to each other . A force field might stop solid objects, but not energy weapons. On the other hand it might take an explosive projectile to take out something the size of a mother ship. A nuclear warhead would vaporize any debris. That makes missiles a viable weapon again. Any solid projectile would have to have a self destruct. For planetary attack either Rods from God or nukes. Possibly asteroids for planetary bombardment. A plasma weapon might not make debris. Possibly a plasma weapon would be short ranged. As it stands now I think a laser would be the first weapon on a spacecraft. It could do double duty. A communication device and a self defense device depending on the power and beam size. I have been told I have an over active imagination. I'll go back to my bunker now.

 

[dr wogz]

watch 'star trek' and 'salvage 1', one right after the other. disregard the time difference..

likely there are salvage bots / people who will scour debris fields.

and, if they can beam people about the galaxy, then they likely have a 'beam net' to sweep up

and of course:

 

[dr wogz]

Another thought I had was.. That comet that came whizzing thru our system the other day (or that cigar shaped asteroid a few years ago).. What if that was such a device; a photon torpedo or the like, and has been travelling / coasting for eons.. Collecting dust & debris to the point it is no longer recognizable as "made".. (But then again, are we 'smart enough' to recognize and old ancient alien artifact hurdling thru space..)

 

[Kallahan11]

Space is big and empty. Any projectile not directly aimed at something will most likely never hit anything.

 

[hobie1dog]

hummm.

 

[afadeev]

So what happens to photon torpedos that miss their targets? Or for that matter projectiles in other space opera stories

The answer would depend on whether one subscribes to infinite or closed universe theory:

What Shape Is the Universe? A New Study Suggests We’ve Got It All Wrong

Most every cosmologist believes the universe is flat. A new analysis argues that it’s closed.

www.quantamagazine.org

Unlike debris around Earth that is more or less in thrall from gravity, the debris of an interstellar explosion would keep spreading out for a long, long time and would occupy a LOT of space. Within a few hours you'd probably have one grain-of-sand sized chunk of debris every 1000 cubic kilometers.

I think we call those things ... meteorites !

 

[KenECoyote]

Something Space Force may be able to answer?

 

[bjphoenix]

Space is big and empty. Any projectile not directly aimed at something will most likely never hit anything.

Well unless it is really fast it will travel for a long time until it gets close to another star. How many start woudl a projectile have to go near before it got unlucky and the gravity sucked it in? But I agree with the big and empty and a projectile could probably pass by a whole lot of stars without any change.

 

[Rob Campbell]

Thought this was another COVID vaccine thread.

 

[afadeev]

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

If you had a big battle on the moon with armies shooting at each other with riffles and machine guns, it would probably go a lot like such battles on earth, with 99% of shots being misses. Those bullets would fly off over the horizon at high speed, and if they didn’t have enough speed for escape velocity, they would just go into a high elliptical orbit with a perigee (or perilune, ugh) pretty much at ground level where the shot was fired. So each orbit, the bullets would come around and shoot the crap out of the battlefield again. Better shoot and scoot so you don’t shoot yourself in the back of the head.

 

[bjphoenix]

Well speaking of photon torpedos- in one of the Star Trek movies they "operated" on a torpedo. It looked a little bit like a small Tomahawk missile.

 

[Rob Campbell]

Well speaking of photon torpedos- in one of the Star Trek movies they "operated" on a torpedo. It looked a little bit like a small Tomahawk missile.

And Spock and McCoy turned it into a Sidewinder missile, complete with the corkscrew flight path toward the target.