Comment on Would Nuclear Weapons be as destructive in ship to ship space combat, as they are on the ground in an atmosphere?

• c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Right, but the ship itself would allow the shockwave, metal is still matter for vibrations to follow.

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  • Hereforpron2@lemmynsfw.com ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The shock wave needs a medium (air) to travel through. So if the bomb was touching a ship, it would certainly transfer kinetic energy, but if there was any space (not air) between them, there is still no shockwave for the ship to feel.

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    • FireRetardant@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      A railgun would be far more effective for transfering kinetic energy and it’s munitions would likely be cheaper

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      • awwwyissss@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        How about a railgun with a nuclear payload? Breach the hull and the nuke would work again

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    • zephr_c@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      A shockwave can travel along the solid structure itself as the medium. Any ship that is actually directly hit would be vaporized. It’s just the whole point of nuke is not needing a direct hit. I doubt any realistic space vessel with anything even remotely similar to plausible near future technology could survive a direct hit from even a moderately sized conventional explosive.

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      • awwwyissss@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Yeah, it takes incredible amounts of energy just to move unarmored ships slowly around our own solar system.

        Seems like adding armor would make them so heavy and slow that they wouldn’t be worth using.

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  • piecat@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That would have to be a big ship to feel a shock wave without being consumed by the ball of plasma

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    • c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Where would that come from? According to a posted article in this thread thermal energy can’t transfer either unless by direct connection and radiation would be the biggest factor, with increasing size compared to on the surface due to lack of atmosphere “attenuating” the distance it travels.

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      • piecat@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        If we’re talking about a direct hit, the radiation is going to be substantial

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