Re: Striking a Lunar target in the near future...

From: Henry Spencer (henry_at_spsystems.net)
Date: 08/19/04 

Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 04:45:10 GMT

In article <4123e2f0$0$2893$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader03.plus.net>,
Ian Stirling <root@mauve.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>This would imply that contact fusing, even at 10Km/s or so impact speeds
>is quite possible, as long as you have a few dozen cm of clearance.

There are indeed reported to be contact fuzes in at least some
ballistic-missile warheads -- when fine wires in the nose of that long,
pointy reentry vehicle start to break, the bomb back in the thick tail is
triggered -- although they may not be the only fuzes present. (For soft
targets -- that is, almost anything except ICBM silos -- air bursts will
typically do more damage.)

>It'll depend on your target.
>If it's a spread-out dome structure, you probably want to light the
>blue touchpaper where the target is around 60 degrees across from the
>bombs POV, so it causes maximum blast effect on the surface.

Remember that there is very little *blast*, per se, in vacuum. Much of
the bomb's energy comes out as soft X-rays. In air, that energy is
promptly absorbed by the air -- that's what makes the fireball -- and that
converts it, via incandescent air, to heat and blast. In space, it's the
X-rays that hit whatever's in line of sight; if it's close, they vaporize
its outer layers, and *that* makes any blast effect.

The problem with a target on the Moon is that unless it absolutely has to
be on the surface for some reason (antennas?), an awfully obvious way
to protect it against temperature extremes, micrometeorites, radiation,
and missile attacks :-) is to shovel a couple of meters of dirt over it.
That makes X-ray-based attacks rather iffy, especially if you aren't
confident of a direct hit. (Bear in mind that the only *precision*
lunar landing capability ever demonstrated involved starting from lunar
orbit, not going straight in.)

I would guess that you are better off fuzing for a surface burst, or even
(warhead design permitting) a subsurface burst, which will excavate a
sizable crater and pretty assuredly kill anything in or near the crater. 

-- 
"Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend."    |   Henry Spencer
                                -- George Herbert       | henry@spsystems.net

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