How I Got My Laser Eye Injury
By Phil of Funranium Labs
https://www.funraniumlabs.com/2024/07/how-i-got-my-laser-eye-injury/
This is one of the dirty little secrets of a scifi battle with laser pistols.
Every innocent bystander between you and the horizon is at a risk of laser blindness
https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sidearmenergy.php#laserblind
Well, innocent bystanders can be protected by the blink reflex, as described in a familiar (to me) conversation on your page.
The idea is that a trigger press initiates a safe flash before the main shine. Maybe it could be two or three safe flashes of increasing brightness before the main shine.
The military could VR goggle optics, to avoid any optical paths to damage eyes. Or if you're on a budget, the pirate eyepatch method works. Once.
@isaackuo @nyrath yeah I like the sci-fi sub-tradition where, because beams, projectiles & explosives are too risky in space boarding battles that the standard for personal combat, for either attackers or defenders, defaults to clubs, armored gloves, maybe nets, as part of hand-to-hand melee.
because if the wrong thing gets pierced or malfunctioned then *all* those folks will Have A Very Bad Day in Space
if one side wants the prize.booty at least. if its not a kamikaze
@isaackuo @nyrath risk no matter what. blades might cut wires, or tubes needed by electrical system, life support, comm or propulsion. for clubs imagine a billyclub. at most: bruises, broken bones vs dents.
plus you dont want to spray blood (or any other toxic or tainted fluid, human tissue or granular substance) inside a micro/zero gravity vessel. blades Bad for that
I just think loose wires and fluid lines are just way too much of a general hazard for spacecraft to have. Too much chance of getting snagged by people simply moving around. No, they'll be tied down.
A small sword doesn't really have much of a blade for cutting, it's a thrusting weapon.
A knife may be useful for cutting an enemy's space suit, but the short length of a knife will make it unlikely to cut something otherwise important accidentally.
1/2
It depends on the type of knife, of course - specialized thrusting knives exist. But a utility cutting knife is most likely to be on hand anyway. If you have a specialized thrusting _weapon_, it may as well be a small sword.
A billyclub would indeed be less likely to smash up hardware, but it's also not very good as a weapon if the enemy is using lethal weapons and wearing any sort of armor (even just thick safety padding).
2/2
@thisnorthernboy @isaackuo @synlogic @nyrath A modern version of the Gyrojet would work fine, as long as it's at enough range to get up to speed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrojet
@cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath
The problem we're pondering is that we do NOT want a bullet zipping around within a spacecraft. Too many important things a bullet hole could damage (according to this thought experiment).
So, gyrojet would be ruled out, but maybe a reverse gyrojet could work - a normal gun shoots a rocket bullet, with the nozzle pointed forward. The rocket both slows the bullet and reduces its mass.
The point is to limits its dangerous range.
@isaackuo @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath If you're inside a spaceship, then your first line of defense is the vacuum around it: if you let someone dangerous in, it's already too late. (Unless you and everyone you want to keep alive can grab an oxygen mask while you swap the ambient breathing gas mix for 100% nitrogen, or—even more dangerous—vent it to space.)
@cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath
I think the imagined scenario is more like a SWAT team or special forces team taking on criminals or terrorists or freedom fighters or something.
In other words, it's not a military ship-to-ship space combat sort of situation, but something messier.
Remember the North Hollywood shootout was a thing. So even civilian criminals might be wearing body armor and use lethal weapons.
@cerebrate @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath
Well yeah, I think the risk of hitting something important from a stray bullet is not such a big deal. I find it an interesting thought experiment, though.
But realistically, a stray bullet will almost always just poke a hole in the hull. So what? It's a minor air leak, but that isn't hard to patch later.
@isaackuo @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath
I recall a while back reading about sky marshal training, and it including a great emphasis on making sure your misses _didn't hit the floor_, that being where hydraulic lines, cable runs, etc., tend to be on commercial aircraft, and thus ceiling and walls are much safer to accidentally.
One could imagine a similar protocol developing for space. "Make sure you aim out of the plane of the removable cover tiles!"
@cerebrate @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath
One thing to keep in mind is that jetliners do NOT regularly get randomly hit by small bits of debris moving at 10+ km/s.
Spacecraft, in contrast, should be designed with that in mind.
There's going to be a certain amount of redundancy and/or tolerance to randomly suffering a hole somewhere.
@isaackuo @cerebrate @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath
Are we talking about doing this in zero G, or in a craft that rotates for artificial gravity? Because I started thinking about pole arms, and started wondering whether a long staff could increase the range at which one could push off of walls in zero G, thus increasing mobility.
@isaackuo @cerebrate @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath
I bet if we had the materials and energy mastery needed for a serious space faring civilization, the staff could be made collapsible and with the ability to expand at projectile speeds. Add a retractable cutting tool of your choice to deal with armor.
I'm now warming up to pole arms in space. I think I like them better than my first idea of "adapt/reinvent rope dart techniques for zero G"
@cerebrate @isaackuo @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath
Oooh, this might be the thread where I get to tell everyone about my idea for combining
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lang_xian
with
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_robot
As a bonus, if you agitate the fractal nano-blades, you might end up with the closest physically semi-plausible thing to a "light saber" in terms of range and cutting ability. And it might even double as a useful tool.
@mds2 @cerebrate @isaackuo @cstross @thisnorthernboy @nyrath I for one welcome the coming of our fractal nano-blade overlords
@synlogic @mds2 @cerebrate @isaackuo @thisnorthernboy @nyrath I want to believe in Drexler-style magical nanotech like bush robots because I could totally rock a bush robot as my endoskeleton (but alas, chemistry and thermodynamics don't favour it) …
@mds2 @cerebrate @isaackuo @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic
Brilliant! That would be a daunting weapon to face
@nyrath @cerebrate @isaackuo @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic
I believe the original was primarily intended to deny the opponent space, and was used in conjunction with other team members using other weapons. A modern/future version could serve a similar purpose.
One problem with the nanotech version in some contexts is "what if some of the nano blades break off?". Those probably aren't great to breathe in.
@mds2 @isaackuo @cerebrate @cstross @thisnorthernboy @nyrath it is interesting how, after many hundreds of years of military tech evolution we might find ourselves going back to "pole arms and plate/chain mail" again. the latter lighter & more flexible hopefully
the drone warfare going on in Ukraine is changing everything about the assumptions around infantry. we now have Dune-like hunter-seeker wasp drones. and they will likely only get smaller, faster, quieter and more lethal.
@synlogic @mds2 @cerebrate @cstross @thisnorthernboy @nyrath
Well, we don't have modernized chain mail armor, but we DO have modernized textile armor (the equivalent of a gambeson) and plate carriers (more like classic jack of plate than plate armor).
I suggested a future possibility of Newtsuit style gapless armor, but this isn't a given.
Anyway, I suggested two one handed captive bolt sticks rather than a pole arm because it's handier in confined spaces.
@mds2 @isaackuo @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath
In my previous thinking about space polearms, I was quite fond of the classic lochaber axe. You have a spike for stabbing, a blade for cleaving, and perhaps most useful in space, a hook for grabbing and pulling free-floating foes towards you prior to either of the former.
Magnificently flexible!
@cerebrate @mds2 @isaackuo @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath what about the Sasumata? Just pin someone against the bulkhead
@cerebrate @mds2 @isaackuo @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath This is one of my favorite things about Legends of the Galactic Heroes: the primary weapon of the space forces' foot soldiers (for a number of reasons) is a spiked labrys which they are shown using in all these ways throughout the show.
For All Mankind S2 spoilers
@isaackuo @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath
Amusingly and contra myself, it's just a couple of days since I watched _For All Mankind_ S2E10, in which a stray bullet goes right through the reactor cooling pump controller. Oops!
(Maybe send the space SWAT team with a second OTV full of spare parts...)
@isaackuo @cstross @thisnorthernboy @synlogic @nyrath
I might be inclined to trust a painstakingly-educated-in-shot-placement team with slug-loaded shotguns on the grounds that even their worst screw-up is still a decent gamble against terrorists who plan on taking the civilian population with them, or amateurs who might panic and hose down the life support compartment with their black-market AK.