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

@nyrath

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

@synlogic @nyrath

I feel like swinging a club around is far more likely to damage random hardware badly than a small sword or knife.

@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

@synlogic @nyrath

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

@synlogic @nyrath

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

@isaackuo @synlogic @nyrath Swinging any kind of melee weapon, in zero/micro gravity has its obvious disadvantages. Same with anything ballistic, even with small muzzle velocity.

How about sonic weapons to disable?

@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