One day humanity will take to the stars, and just like it did in the sea and the air, it
will bring its weapons with it.
Though we can hope that the rise of mankind from the cradle of its infancy to the heavens
above will be accompanied by a similar cultural enlightenment, it's likely that humans will
keep on shooting at each other no matter where they find themselves.
But odds are war in space won't look a thing like what you see on film and TV nowadays.
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Infographics Show- today we're taking a look
at what war in space would look like in the future.
Most science fiction mirrors its wars along the lines of World War I and II naval battles,
with large battleships squaring off against each other as smaller cruisers dart in and
out of the fight to strike at targets of opportunity.
From the rear, squadrons of fighters and bombers weave through the melee to deliver devastating
blows at knife-fighting range.
Yet space involves moving war from two dimensions to a third dimension mankind is largely unfamiliar
with, and a place where physics will always dictate the winner.
So what would a real space war look like versus a traditional science fiction one?
Let's take a look at weapons and defenses, ship types, and tactics.
Space-based weapon systems will be able to enjoy one advantage over planetary weapons:
a lack of friction and gravity both.
On earth, gravity pulls even the fastest bullet to the ground, and friction as it travels
through the air starts slowing it down the moment it leaves the barrel.
But in the almost perfect vacuum of space there is no friction to slow down a projectile,
and unless fighting very near a supermassive source of gravity, there won't be much to
pull a projectile off its trajectory.
Weapons and defenses will depend very much on the advances made by future technological
breakthroughs, but if we extrapolate what we know about physics today and projected
technological realities, we can start to build a picture of what weapons and defenses will
be realistic in the near to medium term.
Weapons will be divided along three main types: kinetic cannons, missiles, and directed energy
weapons.
Kinetic cannons are a technology we've been largely familiar with for most of human history-
they involve nothing more complicated than taking a dense object and shooting it really,
really fast.
In the future, rail guns will be able to achieve incredible velocities, and removed from the
physical constraints of friction in an atmosphere, they'll largely be limited only by the ability
to generate greater and greater amounts of power.
Kinetic cannons will indubitably thus be the most powerful weapons available to a future
spacecraft- except perhaps nuclear weapons, though they will offer a major advantage over
even a space nuke: the ability to concentrate their energy release in a very small target
area.
A nuclear weapon releases a massive amount of energy over a relatively large area, but
the blast from a kinetic impactor will initially be focused onto a very small target area on
an enemy ship's armor, potentially giving it far greater penetration power over futuristic
armors than anything short of a direct hit with a nuclear weapon- and with a far greater
firing rate and cheaper cost.
But kinetic impactors suffer from one major disadvantage: space battles will begin at
massive distances- likely greater than even the 240,000 miles (386,000 km) from the Earth
to the moon.
At such distances even a hypervelocity kinetic cannon will be easy to dodge by an enemy ship,
which could simply thrust slightly to one side and let the rounds pass harmlessly by.
Thus kinetic cannons will be reserved for short distances, salvos meant to devastate
an enemy ship in close quarters combat not unlike age of sail broadsides.
Missiles will be the workhorse of space combat.
With their ability to be guided to a target by long range sensors, or to guide themselves,
and with an onboard engine and fuel, a missile could be fired at extreme ranges and be maneuverable
enough to adjust for evasive maneuvers from an enemy ship.
Two types of missiles will be fielded by spaceships: lighter, long-range missiles, and larger,
intermediate range missiles.
The first salvos at long ranges will be of light missiles carrying smaller, less dense
warheads.
This will allow each missile to accelerate to extremely high speeds, while leaving them
with enough delta-V, or energy required to change trajectory and velocity, to reach even
an evading target.
The aim of these first salvos of lower yield missiles will be to stress the enemy ship's
defenses, and cause any structural damage possible- especially to sensors and defensive
systems such as point-defense weapons.
As the spacecrafts near each other and it becomes harder to evade each other's attacks,
larger missiles with denser warheads will be deployed.
Needing less fuel, or delta-v, to intercept their targets, the key would now be to survive
penetrating past an enemy ship's point defense system- or the weapons, likely laser or particle
beams, which a ship will use to defend against missiles.
Denser missiles with additional shielding will be better able to survive blasts from
high energy lasers, and thus reach their target- but all that added weight will make them useless
at anything but medium to close range.
Most fights will end here, as the incredible destructive power of even a sub-nuclear munition
versus a spacecraft will be immediately catastrophic.
Directed energy weapons will largely be used only for defense.
Given the long ranges of space combat and a laser or particle beam's dispersion over
long distances, it's doubtful any futuristic laser system could deliver enough heat to
a target past a few hundred kilometers.
However if a beam could somehow be focused enough for extremely long distances, lasers
would quickly outclass even missiles as their ability to strike a target at light speed
would make them impossible to dodge.
In all likelihood though, military grade lasers will remain viable only at very close ranges,
and be used exclusively for defending against missile attacks.
Their ability to strike at light speed would make them an ideal defense against enemy missiles,
to overcome this point defense system a ship will need to either deploy very heavily shielded
missiles, or launch swarm attacks of dozens if not hundreds of missiles at once.
While lasers would be ideal for defending at close ranges, they do produce a great deal
of waste heat which would need to be radiated out into space.
This means radiators built either along the hull of the ship or extending from it, and
radiators are by their nature extremely fragile.
If long-range missile attacks from initial volleys manage to damage some of these radiators,
the crew might find themselves unable to use their point defense lasers for fear of cooking
themselves alive inside their ship- or at the very least melting their own weapons.
Defending against enemy attack in space will largely be the job of the point defense system
and a robust electronic warfare suite that can jam or spoof and incoming missile's guidance.
Barring some incredible development in armor plating, or shield-like technology, there
simply won't be much use in trying to armor a spacecraft heavily enough to survive more
than a grazing blow.
That has less to do with the ability to actually make armor tough or thick enough, and more
with simple fuel economy- a bulkier, heavily armored ship will need more fuel to maneuver
in space, and the extra fuel will need more fuel to push it along as well... in space
flight you very quickly reach diminishing returns when you start trying to add extra
mass.
That means spacecraft will be lightly armored, and depend on speed, point defense weapons,
striking first, and electronic warfare capabilities for survival.
The big hulking battleships of science fiction may look awesome, but in reality would simply
be too large and slow a target to evade volleys of missiles or kinetic impactors, and their
huge mass would make them too costly in terms of fuel to ever get anywhere.
So militaries in the future will instead rely on smaller, lightly armored ships that can
move and maneuver quickly.
But if you've got a Star Wars-style dogfighting scene in mind, think again.
Ships will be detectable at extremely long ranges due to the electronic emissions they
generate and the heat from their engines, meaning their trajectories will be easily
plotted.
To change direction in space you have to overcome your own momentum, so trying to make a right
hand turn for instance will mean that you need to turn around and burn away from the
direction you were just traveling, and then turn again and burn in the new direction you
want to go.
Again, barring some fancy futuristic breakthrough, this will be a very lengthy and time consuming
process, and will make ship trajectories child's play to plot.
That means long range missiles can be fired relatively early and programmed to intercept
a hostile ship at a specific point as plotted by current and projected acceleration, distance
to target, and direction of travel.
Surprise simply won't be an option- so instead ships will accelerate towards each other seeking
to achieve greater velocity than their opponent.
A greater velocity will mean that their fired missiles will have a greater initial velocity
as they travel towards their target, granting them extra delta-v for maneuvering and a greater
kinetic energy upon impact.
Ships will face off against each other like two drag cars playing a game of chicken, and
whoever is fastest, has the best point defense and electronic warfare system will be the
winner.
Although in all likelihood given the fragility of spacecraft and the awesome destructive
power of kinetic cannons and missiles, most space battles will end with few surviving
spacecraft on either side.
Whoever inflicted the greatest monetary damage will likely end up the winner of a space war.
Sadly for the sci-fi enthusiasts amongst us war in space won't be nearly as heroic or
awe-inspiring as in the movies, and will instead boil down to games of chicken between heavily
armed and lightly armored suicide death-coffins.
Maybe though a few pointless and mutually destructive space battles will be exactly
what humanity needs in order to decide that war is truly at last completely pointless,
and something we can leave behind along with our very muddled history as we reach into
the stars in an attempt to forge a new destiny for ourselves.
But probably not.
If you want to know what a space war would look like during the present day, make sure
you check out Part 1.
How do you think war in space will look like?
What kind of ships would fare best in space combat?
Let us know in the comments section!
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