Sci-fi Weapons, Vehicles and Equipment

Singing J-Pop songs and keeping morale up?

Out out context page topper is the best topper.

edited 4th Jun '18 9:55:20 PM by AngelusNox

I'm wondering because, well is there any good reason to make a machine that looks just like a person to do specific tasks when more inhuman or tin can designs would work just as well if not better? Infiltration makes sense because they are supposed to enter into locations and get out with a better chance than a regular human spy.

But what other jobs are there that couldn't just be done by a regular tin can robot?

I think it was someone here who suggested units of power armor where only one suit actually has someone in it, while the rest are operated by AI, so that the enemy doesn't know where the unit's "brain" is. You could do the same with androids and unpowered infantry, though if you can replicate a human's performance(in terms of humanlike movement and mobile power supply) it raises the question of why the unit doesn't have power armor, which doesn't need to seem so human for the same trick to work.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has that as one of Tony Stark's party tricks, possibly inspired by Whiplash's use of Iron Armor drones in Iron Man 2. Although Tony, in one of his moments of better judgement, had JARVIS running the drones rather than trying to do so himself most of the time.

You want human looks for things that have to interact in at least semi-social manner with people.

Would graphene make some sense as an added layer to starship armor? I'm thinking of using it as a way to stop energy transfer from ballistic attacks, or at the very mitigate it as much as possible.

I wouldn't think so because it's surprisingly brittle. We're talking 4 MPa√m of pressure to break compared to other metals being in the 15-50 MPa√m range.

Also as seen here on The Other Wiki, potential uses for armor are not explored. It might be a miracle material for many things, but armor it probably won't be. (Unless you're referring to armor against toxins or radioactive nuclides.)

Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe the brittleness is desirable for armor.

edited 6th Jun '18 8:24:45 PM by MajorTom

Graphene can actually make a good potential armor though as I understand it, it is more about how you manufacture what is becoming the armor.

From Rice University In test using micro bullets and observation equipment graphene looks to be a very strong and resilient material. Velocities of the projectiles in question were in 3km/s range.

As I understand in this case it is about how the graphene is layered.

Add in they are also testing composites which so far have yielded the best results in the majority of armor and armor designs.

edited 6th Jun '18 8:47:27 PM by TuefelHundenIV

As I understand it, Graphene also has excellent thermal conductivity and capacity so you can use it to help radiate heat from the entire surface of a ship. Kinda like that whole diamond armor flight of fancy.

Similarly, you'd want graphene as part of a composite of other materials like titanium or steel to overcome it's brittleness. Face hardened armor or whipple shields come to mind.

You know, I'm wondering, how would a gun work in hard scifi? Heat is a problem as it warps the barrel but Hard scifi has radiators to dissipate heat off of ships... what would a bullet spitter do? How does it handle heat in a environment where it can't dissipate that heat?

In a word: Poorly.

Everything always dissipates heat at all times, it's just radiation is the least efficient of the three main ones.

But real world bullet sluggers wouldn't go inoperable after only a few shots. Going cyclic on real world firearms today quickly overheats barrels on many weapons even factoring in convection from the atmosphere. Even then it takes upwards of several minutes of sustained fire to truly do any real damage or harm.

Thus in space, while the time to overheat is shorter, you may have upwards of a full minute in sustained fire before overheat effects become a problem.

But a full minute of sustained fire is a lot of fire. Longer than it takes to reasonably defeat any single target.

However, be mindful if the weapon is already hot. While it may take a full minute to overheat a weapon that starts cold, it'll take a lot longer than a minute to cool back down.

edited 17th Jun '18 12:58:38 PM by MajorTom

And yet, projectile weapons will always be more efficient than energy weapons at heat management, for a variety of reasons. To do the same relative amount of damage as a bullet, a laser would generate orders of magnitude more heat, at least according to current technology. Part of that is that the majority of the propulsion force from bullets comes from expanding gas, which can be vented from the weapon into space as a means of heat dissipation, letting you take advantage of the much more efficient convection mechanism.

Relating this to propulsion, there's a neat moment in Lost in Space (2018) when a ship accelerating into orbit has to vent its excess engine heat, and from the way it's shown, it seems to use spare propellant as a heat sink, expelling it to cool the engines. I'm not sure about the physics of the scene (they aren't that important to the narrative), but it is a very interesting concept.

edited 17th Jun '18 1:11:07 PM by Fighteer

If heat becomes a real concern you can start using the usual range of heat management such as radiators or active cooling.

I meant heat for handheld guns, not ship guns.

Same thing. Stick with brass casings to boot as they act as ejectable heat sinks.

edited 17th Jun '18 4:08:51 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Fluted or finned barrels could also be used.

Air guns might be a better choice for rapid fire. The propellant gas cools as it expands.

Of course, this can lead to a freezing issue but that's something you can take advantage of.

We might develop a very insulative material with the right properties to make the inner layer of the barrel, or even the whole thing.

Small rotary guns may become useful. I assume that's part of the reason Martians in The Expanse use them, at least in the TV series. ...Could you make rotary guns that have all their barrels in one water jacket, with a rotating disk with all muzzles sealing it at the front?

Brass cases seem like a lot of weight for the heat they carry away... Speaking of ejected cases, since they won't slow down until they hit something/someone, you might want a convenient setup that retains them.

edited 17th Jun '18 4:59:20 PM by ManInGray

There may be a way to seal separate barrels on a Gatling weapon in separate jackets but it might be tricky. The brass carries away a surprising amount of heat and is partly responsible for why we still have cased ammo and why caseless has had such a hard time taking off.

A rotary system might help with how water acts in zero-g. By keeping the barrels spinning you can centrifuge the water from the water vapor. This still means you've got a pressure vessel in space but that's something you can manage.

There's a number of systems to deal with stray brass. In this case you either want a feed system that puts the brass back into the magazine or a simple bag to catch it. I suggest the bag, you can have one attached to every magazine.

Regardless of how you cool the weapon, you have to dissipate the heat at some point.

Pressure sensitive valves drawing from the center of the cooling jacket. You'll need to resupply the water though.

I'd use this for a rotary laser system instead. Vehicle mounted, you'd be able to lay down neigh limitless supressive fire until the water ran out.

edited 18th Jun '18 10:23:25 AM by Belisaurius

If you were designing a multi-barrel laser I’m not sure you’d need to make it rotate.

And if we’re using liquid cooling, water isn’t particularly efficient. Most spacecraft use liquid ammonia in their coolant systems, it conducts heat much better. It wouldn’t need to be replaced either, cooling systems are a closed loop.

edited 18th Jun '18 10:36:36 AM by archonspeaks

Well, heat buildup still occurs even if you use coolant systems to move it around. The question of how you eliminate it still pertains.

Shift it away from critical components to radiators or other heat dissipation systems.