From: chakatfirepaw@gmail.com   
      
   On Wed, 20 Jul 2016 11:03:31 -0700, Mikkel Haaheim wrote:   
      
   > Le mercredi 13 juillet 2016 03:13:18 UTC+2, Rick Pikul/Chakat Firepaw a   
   > écrit :   
   >   
   >> Assuming you can hit them.  Even if the locations and orbits of the   
   >> platforms are 100% known, all they have to do is have a solar sail and   
   >> tweak their orbit every couple months and you don't know where it's   
   >> going to be in a year when your KKV arrives.   
   >   
   > Not quite so easy as that. Useful platforms with considerable range   
   > and/or field of view are going to be rather large and heavy. Solar sails   
   > have to be incredibly large just to accelerate small masses on the order   
   > of a few kg, let alone a few tonnes. Keep in mind that the sails are   
   > essentially giant mirrors... they won't reflect a quality optical image,   
   > but they WILL reflect a bright one. Your solar sail will make it more   
   > likely to track the platform because it will be shining brilliantly   
   > sun-side, and occluding a nice patch of sun on its "dark" side (that is,   
   > you will see a big dot where sunlight is supposed to be.   
      
   Remember that this is granting that all the observation platforms are   
   known.  Saying "that would make them easy to spot" isn't exactly a   
   counterargument.   
      
   Given the ranges involved, your KKVs are going to have to go for a high   
   speed pass if you want to take out a platform in a relevant amount of   
   time.  This makes the manoeuvres far more costly in deltaV for the KKV.   
      
   >> It also wouldn't be that strange for such platforms to have one or more   
   >> "oh shit" rockets that allow them to make a rapid manoeuvre once or   
   >> twice during their service life.  (To react to things like, say,   
   >> something that appears to be a KKV adjusting course to counter a solar   
   >> sail 'jink'   
   >   
   > it might... but it is not going to be able to make accurate observations   
   > if it is jinking all the time, so sending in a drone to keep it occupied   
   > serves the same purpose...   
      
   A constant low-g acceleration isn't going to be much of a problem to   
   compensate for with the sensors.  The "oh shit" rockets are going to   
   blind the platform for a few minutes/an hour but they only fire the once   
   to maximize the deltaV to intercept for the KKV.   
      
   > until it DOES manage a track and kill. OTOH,   
   > the platform is likely to have some of those OTHER "oh shit" rockets...   
   > the kind that go boom when attackers get too close.   
   > You are right that killing the platforms will not always be easy, and   
   > you might not get all of them... but you are going to take out as many   
   > as you can.   
      
   And if you miss more than a couple it will all have been for naught.   
      
   >> Another problem with a 'kill the sensor net' plan is that making it   
   >> useful for hiding your fleet movements means giving up any pretence of   
   >> strategic surprise.  The first reaction to large parts of the sensor   
   >> net going down is going to be shifting to a state of high alert.   
   >   
   > There is strategic stealth, but there is also tactical stealth. Even   
   > when you are at full out war, and very non-stealthy engagements are   
   > raging, stealth can be applied at lesser scales to allow a critical   
   > mission to succeed. Sometimes, the best stealth method is simply to   
   > overwhelm all the counter-stealth tech, until the enemy no longer has   
   > the resources to detect one last stealth manoeuvre.   
      
   One part of going to high alert is going to be launching backup sensor   
   platforms.  Sure, the coverage won't be as good but you also have the   
   same year+ lag time before they can be attacked, (especially if you have   
   managed to conceal the fact that your intelligence agency owns a   
   particular half-dozen asteroid refining ships[1]).   
      
   Remember that interplanetary combat is s l o w .   
      
   And, TBH, you are almost certainly going to have your KKVs noticed long   
   before they hit.  That will result in a war footing, (and extra sensors),   
   even before the existing ones die.   
      
      
   [1] The one thing you can conceal is the exact contents of a cargo hold.   
   Sure, I know there is about 100 tonnes of stuff in there but not exactly   
   what it is.   
      
   --   
   Chakat Firepaw - Inventor and Scientist (mad)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)