In the distant cosmos, an unknown future, where anything is possible… of course we're
still blowing each other up. But remember, in space, no one can hear you
scream, about how scientifically inaccurate that space battle is.
[MUSIC]
Why am I blasting through the cosmos at at full afterburner?
An object in motion stays in uniform motion unless acted upon by an external force. So
that means if I'm moving I'll keep moving in the same direction, even with my engines
off.
Real space fighters would probably only engage their engines for short bursts to accelerate,
slow down, or maneuver. But how would I maneuver?
Use the fooooorce… literally!
Obi-Wanewton, is that you?
Let go, Joe, and ask yourself, does any of this actually make any sense?
A spaceship in motion has momentum. To move in a different vector, force must be applied
to counteract that momentum!
Today's spaceships use steerable thrust to orient the ship in three dimensions.
But maneuvering thrusters would be vulnerable to enemies.
What if they used internal gyroscopes near their center of mass, harnessing angular momentum
to orient the spacecraft, then applying bursts of thrust to accelerate!
This sounds familiar.
What about weapons? In space, with noatmosphere to create a shockwave, explosive weapons are
kind of useless. And do I need to say it?
No sound in space.
Nukes! They could still deliver blasts of radiation energy. Their intensity would decrease
with blast radius, but within a few hundred meters of a spaceship they could spontaneously
melt a metal hull to liquid
Neutron radiation could pass straight through spacecraft armor
And it would radioactively cook any humans inside like Stormtrooper hot pockets.
But missiles and guided weapons suffer from the same Newtonian limitations as we talked
about before.
Lasers!!
Real high energy lasers would be invisible since they operate outside outside the visible
range of light.
But remember, over long distances lasers are difficult to focus.
True. Lunar rangefinding lasers fired from Earth at reflectors on the moon are over 6
kilometers wide by the time they hit.
Don't forget energy! A weapon like the Death Star is equivalent to all the energy released
by the sun in an entire week!
And there's no atmosphere to dissipate all the heat. Honesty, if you want to destroy
a planet, you'd be better off throwing an asteroid at it or something.
Heavy thing moving fast make spaceship go boom.
A different battlefield calls for different tactics.
In space, there's a great deal of space.
Close in, broadside naval battles look cool, but not gonna happen.
In space combat, the speed of light could be our greatest advantage . . .
That's true! If Earth's orbital defenses are engaged in battle with the rebel Europa colony,
each side would be firing at each other's shadow. Because of the time it takes light
to travel, they'd only able to know what the other was up to like half an hour earlier.
In some ways, realistic space combat would be closer to the 18th century than it is today,
with days-long communications delays and battles fought with cannons and musket balls… except
it's happening in space.
It makes you wonder, why is so much of what we see so wrong?
Like Jar-Jar Binks!
Right. It's George Lucas' fault. The ship-on-ship combat of Star Wars, which has gotta be the
most influential space combat fiction out there, was based on WWII dogfighting… like
take the attack on the Death Star, based on a British WWII film. Most space battles haven't
reached past his prototype.
Why is the inevitable outcome of human space exploration war?
That says more about our own fears and history than anything else.
A lot of 20th century science fiction was warnings about 20th century wars. In reality,
space combat is just so impossibly difficult, deadly, and impractical that it's worth wondering
we'll ever actually see it come to pass.
I say we take a nod from JFK:
I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without
repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.
If you subscribe, I will spare you the firepower of this fully armed and operational YouTube
channel.
Listen, lots of very smart people have spent lots of time writing lots of words about this
very subject, I put lots of links in the description for you to check out and discuss.
What you think: What will space battles look like in the future, will we even be fighting
in space? And do any of your favorite books and movies get the physics right? let me know
down in the comments.
Stay curious, always.