Realistic Look at Space Combat

by Christopher Paul on November 21, 2012

First, let me say I can’t even believe there is a whole forum dedicated to space battles. Once you get past that, in the forums is a rather long but fascinating essay on what space combat would be like. The author doesn’t go into science fiction related bits like force fields and whatnot. Rather, he goes talks about the environment, ship design, weapons, combat and defense tactics, and the people – pilots and pirates – that would be involved in inter-solar war. My favorite part of the discussion is how it compares to our modern naval warfare:

A warship will probably basically be a can full of weaponry on top of a big fuel tank, with the crew controlling the thing from a small habitat module. The crew will effectively be command crew; there to tell the machines what to do, not to micromanage the operations of the ship. You’ll probably have a small core crew to fly the ship, a few damage control technicians, and maybe a medic or two. Serving on one will be more like serving on a WWII U-boat than anything else.

Science fiction (and perhaps military) fans will want to read this.

via Sara Pavis who’s covering for Kottke while he’s on vacation.

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