Sci-fi Military Tactics and Strategy

Short answer is that slingshot maneuvers multiply delta V and anything times 0 is 0.

Long answer is that gravity assists only matter when you're passing by a celestial object you aren't going to orbit. So if you were coming from Mars to Earth you could use the Moon to slingshot to a different part of Earth but you couldn't slingshot around Earth to land on a different part of Earth.

In defense of the Expanse series, the specific population numbers they give are not essential to the plot, and you could step them down by a couple orders of magnitude and not change anything important. The "Belt" depends entirely on imported resources from Earth to survive, that's what is driving the background conflict to begin with.

Does geostationary orbit change the missile calculus in any way or still roughly the same,

You mean as a launch point or a target?

Either

In low Earth orbit, you go around once every 90 minutes. In geostationary orbit, you go around once every 24 hours. It takes energy to change an orbit, and the amount of energy depends on the amount of change. It's all orbital mechanics, of course, but the numbers in the equations are different. I'm not sure how else to answer the question.

Edited by Fighteer on Nov 11th 2022 at 10:25:43 AM

>In defense of the Expanse series, the specific population numbers they give are not essential to the plot, and you could step them down by a couple orders of magnitude and not change anything important. The "Belt" depends entirely on imported resources from Earth to survive, that's what is driving the background conflict to begin with.

Not just that, but both Earth's and Mars' populations are explicitly unsustainable. Both start to collapse very quickly when supply lines are no longer maintained.

Earth and Mars both depend on asteroid belt materials to sustain themselves, which is why there are so many belters in the first place. The belters themselves also require heavy amounts of imported materials from other stations, and many of them are on large bodies like Ganymede or Ceres (and not, as implied on this thread, on random rocks).

Belter is more a catch all term for anyone who doesn't live on the Inner planets anyways, with it always said more derogatorily than anything.

They're not being hunted. The idea was that after the Earth-centric One World Order gets wiped by a Colony Drop after years of persistent armed conflict and a complete madhouse of a power vacuum breaks out over who's in charge now, the spacers living in orbital habitats go "fuck all y'all" and bug out into the asteroid belt to get away from all this.

It takes the survivors dirtside a few centuries to get back up into space, at which point they promptly start infighting again over the Lost Technology still lying around. The ones in the asteroid belt aren't being hunted, they're xenophobic isolationists who don't want their whereabouts and continued existence known because they don't want any kind of contact with the "crazies". AKA "let those idiots kill each other, it ain't our problem anymore".

"Tens of millions of xenophobic isolationists." Feasibility of living in the asteroid belt notwithstanding, I give them at most one full generation before that falls apart.

Edited by Fighteer on Nov 14th 2022 at 6:52:35 AM

^ Yeah about 30-40 years tops is about how long a severe isolationism political regime lasts. Usually ended in great upheaval and calamity like a major war or complete economic collapse or famine or revolution or so on.

Rarely do isolationist regimes last for long in the absence of a surprising amount of self sufficiency.

I think he means "isolated from Earth", not necessarily each other.

The United Federation of Isolationist Colonies would be a fun concept to work with in a story.

The irony would be palpable.

Their motto, "Hippity hoppity, get off our property."

And they’re the way they are because they’re secretly the deadliest sons of bitches there are.

But no one ever shows up for the meetings.

Someone had to say it.

Of course they don't. Nobody wants to host the meetings.

>The United Federation of Isolationist Colonies would be a fun concept to work with in a story.

It reminds me of the european meeting of eurosceptics, vowing to work together to stop working together.

What would a Naval Cargo Ship be designated?

As in what prefix would it use, or like what would it be described as, compared to a Guided Missile Destroyer or a Landing Craft (Tank)?

What it would be described as.

Generaly that depends on what there hauling, the navy doesnt just use one lump "cargo"

You have the aforementioned landing craft tank for vehicles...

Munitions ships for munitions.

Oilers for oil.

And so on.

I can think of a few fun phrases for a ship designed to haul uranium.

Spicy Metal Ship.