Yeah, RKV are a bit of nightmare fuel if you're into scifi. That's why so many works go out of their way to say that FTL doesn't work near planets.
Fight smart, not fair.Actually, the possibility of aliens R-bombing us isn't such a big threat. That'd be like developing nuclear weapons and worrying that Martians will come and kill us. But, if humans venture into space and we colonize various star systems, we'd still likely be a threat to each other given relativistic technology.
It's not like aliens are required for in system wars or anything.
Fight smart, not fair.I once considered writing a story in which a species of alien is fighting with itself over control of the less advanced human labor pool, with our encouragement. It would have had some interesting politics.
"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."My opinion on the matter is that it's so time-consuming to get from one star to another with any STL technology that R-bombing your neighbors is utterly pointless. Also, unless the galaxy is positively swimming with sentient life at all stages of development, simple probability dictates that any species near enough to be impacted by an RKV from Sol would either be vastly more advanced than us or vastly inferior.
As an example, with our current tech, if someone decided to fire an RKV at us (or had done so in the past, given necessary travel times) to impact any time in the next 50 years or so, we'd be toast.
Edit: Then again, if Hobbes Was Right is a universal constant, it might be in any given species' individual self-interest to obliterate any potential rivals the instant they gain the capability to do so, against the chance that said rivals might try to obliterate them instead. It's a form of the Prisoners' Dilemma on a galactic scale. By the time you can reach your neighboring planets with colony ships, your RKVs will have eliminated any potential natives' ability to resist.
edited 24th Mar '11 7:40:17 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"About the Orion drive: The concern is not only in the energy output though, but also in the radioactive fallout. I think large amounts of energy being blown off isn't that dangerous in itself (you can conduct your launch in some isolated location), but no one wants radioactive waste being spread through the atmosphere.
In addition, because of the nature of the Orion drive, the energy will not be "contained" in a (comparatively) narrow beam like a rocket's exhaust, but a more omnidirectional blast (perhaps they could use some kind of method to direct the explosion somewhat; but I don't know whether such methods exist for nuclear weapons, or whether they would be particularly effective). So the potential for widespread damage is higher.
edited 24th Mar '11 9:08:23 AM by ashnazg
Orion uses a directional explosive to focus almost all of the energy in a fairly narrow cone, so that's not much of an issue.
The issue of detonating bombs in atmosphere is a significant one (and currently illegal via the Partial Test Ban Treaty), but the problem goes away if you only use an Orion drive in space (though that's still illegal, via the Outer Space Treaty). Which does negate a lot of its advantages, but you can't have everything.
edited 24th Mar '11 9:21:24 AM by NativeJovian
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
It's funny... the first time I heard of the Orion Drive, I also thought it odd that it's powered by nuclear bombs, and that apparently that's not an unusual reaction. Meaning I wouldn't be surprised if there were controversy to building a craft driven by it in real life.
But really, any drive capable of interplanetary and especially interstellar travel would have an output rivaling all our current nuclear weapons, so whether it's shaped like a nozzle rocket or a nuke surfboard, it's gonna have the potential to be incredibly destructive. Anything caught in the wake of the craft's drive will be obliterated. Fortunately I doubt we'd have to worry about that unless the drive is fired up to full power while docked at a space station, and the sun puts out more radiation than any theoretical drives would produce, so we're not gonna pollute interstellar space any time soon.
What I am worried about? Relativistic Weapons. It might actually be better for our survival in the long run to NOT try to get up to high percentage of c lest we're unlucky enough to be in sight of other space-faring alien species who will look at that and think "Finger of God". Which is likely what we'd think if we detected a significant mass traveling near c. I'll take the generational ships that cruise for millenia over that possibility.