What is your favorite fleet action?

[Dundradal]

Since we've been on a kick for about the last month about such things I'd thought I'd think outside the box a little and start talking about fleet actions (capship vs capship).

I like in FA when the Tarawa and 3 other CVE's manage to destroy and heavily damage another fleet carrier in a straight up shooting match (although fighters were involved as well).

Even though they were outclassed in almost every sense they managed to walk away with a tactical victory, although they lost a few ships in the process...

 

[TheRedDuke]

End Run's Kilrah run is classic...nothing like catching the enemy's finest warriors with their pants down. Inflict sizeable casualties, then come home alive.

 

[Expendable]

Well, our choices are severely limited by the lack of coverage of the majority of the war.

But, my personal favorite is McAuliffe. After the skyhook is destroyed, Confederation fleet elements, led by the TCS Concordia and TCS Ark Royal, instead of fleeing the overwhelming Kilrathi Fleet, turn around and hit them with a bomber/kamikaze frigate strike, while their fighters wipe out Kilrathi Legions in high-atmosphere.

This one strike saved the Confederation, as the Emperor lost his nerve and called a fallback as a result of the loss of the legions and the like. So, that is why I favor that one engagement.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

I agree with Expendable. Skyhook was one of the greatest actions taken during the war. the fact that it worked made it even shinier!

 

[Fenris Ulven]

Well, our choices are severely limited by the lack of coverage of the majority of the war.

But, my personal favorite is McAuliffe. After the skyhook is destroyed, Confederation fleet elements, led by the TCS Concordia and TCS Ark Royal, instead of fleeing the overwhelming Kilrathi Fleet, turn around and hit them with a bomber/kamikaze frigate strike, while their fighters wipe out Kilrathi Legions in high-atmosphere.

This one strike saved the Confederation, as the Emperor lost his nerve and called a fallback as a result of the loss of the legions and the like. So, that is why I favor that one engagement.

ark royal was a real carrier in ww2 in the mediterrian

 

[ChanceKell]

Many ships in the WC universe are named after famous warships from naval history or even naval engagements, especially those that took place during WW2 in the Pacific.

 

[Dundradal]

The destruction of the skyhook tower is definately an amazing thing, especially when you consider people thought of it was basically undestroyable...nothing is ever un- something. It must have rained steel for hours afterwards around the ground base...

 

[Sylvester]

I never read FA. The skyhook reached into space from the ground?

 

[Death]

Yep. The whole skyhook idea basically has a station in geosynchronous orbit, with a pillar connecting it to the planet. Basic idea is for fast, cheap (once constructed, anyhow) access to space, without mucking around with chemical rockets. Right now it's not possible due to the limits of modern engineering, though.

(See also Arthur C. Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise.)

 

[Dundradal]

The skyhook is in action stations, the space station at the top of the skyhook is alexandria.

There was a article in Popular science a month or two back where they talked about Clarke's space elevator. They are nearing the technological level to be able to build one, however one of the biggest problems is materials. Carbon nanotubes have been proposed as a material, but the largest one yet created is still extremely small

 

[TheRedDuke]

I read that article, I believe it was from last month's issue. I think the proposed cost, coningent on the material the cable would be made out of, is about $10 billion. That's about the cost of launching the space shuttle 20 times, so while the overhead would be pricey, it could pay for itself in a very short amount of time.

 

[Edfilho]

Some day our descendents will be using it go take a hike on the moon...

 

[rampage3057]

I didn't catch the PopSci article, but I'm familiar with the concept as proposed by Clark. Wouldn't the strength of the 'cable' (i.e., vs. micrometeorites, atmospheric turbulence, etc.) be a major breaking point?
(no pun intended)

 

[Edfilho]

I didn't catch the PopSci article, but I'm familiar with the concept as proposed by Clark. Wouldn't the strength of the 'cable' (i.e., vs. micrometeorites, atmospheric turbulence, etc.) be a major breaking point?
(no pun intended)

I recall it being more than just one cable.
And the things you said are precisely the reasons why we don't have this stuff today =)

when they solve these problems (and others) then maybe....

 

[TheRedDuke]

Here's a link to the Pop Science article, although I think it's abridged from the magazine article:

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,12543,599827-4,00.html

Also, here's a terrific story on the application of nanotubes for an elevator from Popular Mechanics:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/2002/7/going_up/print.phtml

 

[rampage3057]

Thanx, Duke. Interesting stuff!

 

[Ijuin]

The current proposal is to use three pairs of cables (later increased to six), made of carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes have been tested at a tensile strength of seventy tons per square centimeter, and are stronger under tension than any known substance other than isometric diamond crystal.

Ten billion dollars is actually quite cheap--it's only twice what the Shuttle originally cost to develop, and is less than NASA's budget for one year. The current obstacles are A) making carbon nanotubes large enough for a 35,000 kilometer cable, and B) making the cables robust against collisions with space junk traveling twenty times as fast as a bullet.

 

[Edfilho]

35000 km is a long wya to go... more than half Earth's diameter. ouch... But the good thing is that all these obstacles are technical. We have the theory, we have possible materials... It's just a matter of time. Unlike things like Faster-Than-Light speeds, which we are nowhere near.