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Path: utzoo!utcs!lsuc!pesnta!amdcad!decwrl!decvax!dartvax!chuck
From: chuck@dartvax.UUCP (Chuck Simmons)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: RE: Space burial
Message-ID: <2771@dartvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 23-Feb-85 04:29:18 EST
Article-I.D.: dartvax.2771
Posted: Sat Feb 23 04:29:18 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 24-Feb-85 09:24:20 EST
References: <2057@drutx.UUCP>
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Lines: 25

> Has SSI considered the possibility that they could be starting  our
> first inter-stellar war?  I, for one, would consider it a very hos-
> tile act if someone were to fire little  ash-filled  titanium  cap-
> sules  at  me.   Such bullets propelled by light-sails, as at least
> one netter proposed, could  reach  their  victims  at  .999c  given
> enough  time.  Even if launched only with enough velocity to escape
> the solar system, those little bullets would pack  quite  a  wallop
> when  impacting  a  target  at  some  great differential speed.  An
> angry, intelligent civilization so threatened could  easily  calcu-
> late the trajectories and figure out where they came from.
> 
> ZAP! we're history!
> 
>  Paul Given             {ihnp4, houxe, stcvax!ihnp4}!drutx!pagiven

I assume this is humor?  My physics isn't very good, but...  It seems
to me that if one of these "bullets" encountered an atmosphere, it
would burn up creating a rather beautiful meteorite (?).  Also, it seems
that a civilization which had communities living outside the protection
of an atmosphere would have devised some other form of protection against
the occasional small but quickly moving object.  Finally, it seems to
me that civilizations would tend to be clustered around stars.  Could
a light-sail powered bullet get near another star at such a high speed?

chuck%d1@dartvax