From: tkoenig@netcologne.de   
      
   Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha  schrieb:   
   > Thomas Koenig  wrote in news:p67d2b$n5h$1   
   > @newsreader4.netcologne.de:   
   >   
   >> Damien Valentine  schrieb:   
   >>   
   >>> Also, because everybody's moving around at kilometers-per-second   
   >>> speeds, your ammunition doesn't actually need to be all that   
   >>> heavy.  See the Atomic Rockets website, where -- I believe on   
   >>> the "conventional weapons" page -- the author proposes using   
   >>> kitty-litter as ammunition.   
   >>   
   >> That has to be a joke.   
   >>   
   >> In order to be useful as a ballistic weapon, and unless your enemy   
   >> obliges you by not dodging, you'll have to accelerate your   
   >> "bullets", probably with a fairly high acceleration.  Kitty   
   >> litter doesn't have the mechanical strength for this.   
   >>   
   > Even if it disintegrated into a gas, I don't think I'd want to fly   
   > into it at relativistic speeds.   
      
   How would you acclerate kitty litter to relativistic speeds?  The   
   first step would probably involve vaporizing it, and that would be   
   silly - you'd be better off using a single element for this,   
   preferably one of those with a single isotope only.   
      
   Of course, we know how to accelerate mass to relativistic speeds - it   
   happens daily in particle accelerators.  So, create (or have) your   
   gas, ionize, accelerate and neutralize. The latter is very important,   
   otherwise the beam will spread very badly due to electrostatics.  The   
   neutralization could possible work by joining your particle beam to   
   an electron beam.   
      
   Now, what would happen at the target? An atom moving at relativistic   
   speeds behaves a lot like an alpha particle. Penetration depth of   
   alpha rays is on the order of 50 micrometers in water, so the energy   
   will be absorbed on the surface of your target, which will become   
   ionized and heat up.   
      
   Still something that water ice ablation armor should handle well.   
      
   For a given, finite energy budet, this still doesn't look very   
   efficient.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)