|
The Iron Sky -team is looking for your ideas and comments. Join and show your support for Iron Sky.  Some ObservationsI am sorry I am not including photos but I have some scientific input for the film. First and foremost is the fact that without friction in space, the Muzzle velocity of most weapons will be slightly higher than in atmosphere because of the bullet not needing to overcome air resistance leaving the barrel, not significantly higher but enough that bullets will be slightly more damaging. Second, without friction projectiles will not decrease in velocity through travel and would therefore have the same velocity at target as at weapon.
For effect of rounds on ships, this is where it gets fun. Small rounds that make it through the hull will pass through until something stops them, like the other side of the hull or people and equipment. If it hits the other hull, the ricochet will do more damage internally. The breach caused by the ammo will either need to be sealed or decompression will kill anyone as they are exposed to hard vacuum. I imagine that the Nazi's would account for this and line their hulls with the same substance that they used in their puncture proof fuel tanks which would flow into the breach and harden, making a patch that although not likely to withstand re-entry it would prevent decompression and a crew could then use some kind of repair kit to seal the breach more effectively. It would be interesting to see how weapons changed due to development on the moon. Standard firearms would work as the powder contains it's own oxidizer, but other considerations exist and rocket ammo might be a better choice as there would be no recoil to throw back the firer. Another choice could be some kind of "link" between gun and suit that fired a short stabilizing burst from a back pack of some kind every time a shot was fired, therefore keeping the shooter from being tossed about. Please contact me if you want or need any further insight into my thoughts |
Jump to comment form
Comments
yeah nukes have small effect, unless they will use nuclear energy in cumulative rounds...
There are some problems with the acceleration tactic. Detection range in space is extremely long, nukes have relatively small blast effects in space, and if g-forces are such a problem that the saucers have to fight like airborn fighters in space then they may not be able to accelerate hard enough to avoid long range fire in the first place. Also, if they get within conventional fighter range it will actually make them far easier targets by reducing the time to target for projectiles to travel, reducing the chances of missing.
You have some good points, but there is one other factor to consider. Kinetic energy. In a spaceship traveling 20,000 mph, if you fire a 20 mm cannon at a ship approaching at the same speed, that shell would have almost 130 megajoules of energy per kilogram. In comparison, a 125 mm shell has 1.4 megajoules when fired on Earth.
That suggests some very interesting tactics. For example, accelerating to top speed to close the distance before the enemy can use long range nuclear missiles, then slow down to fight at speeds comparable to a modern jet fighter to avoid G forces squashing people to jelly or getting shredded by debris from destroyed spacecraft, which would keep whatever was the original velocity and kinetic energy.
The British pioneered the use of ceramics with Chobham armor for their tanks, a secret combination of ceramics and alloys. To this day, only the British Challenger and the American M1Abrams are known to use ceramic armor. It is considered the strongest tank armor in existence and has a reputation of taking multiple hits well. However, MajorD is right about the way ceramic armor cracks. That is why on modern tanks the tiles are fixed to a backplate, put under compression, and generally used as filler between inner and outer metal walls, in a sort of metal and ceramic sandwich.
The ceramic will still shatter even with a sticky backing. Material not touching the sticky back will fall off due to parallel shattering. Even if fractures don't happen parallel to the plane of the hull, thanks to perpendicular cracking the ability to spread and slow the force of projectiles will be lost within a certain radius of impact. A single impact can completely compromise thermal protection of a single tile even if it may not eliminate its ability to stop a few more bullets. The concept of covering the saucers in ceramic is none the less a very interesting and worthwhile concept.
Even with their seemingly reactionless engines, the trailer shows them boosting with rockets, indicating a lack of acceleration in early models. They may find aerobreaking in Earth's atmosphere to be a good way to lose velocity, requiring tiled or ceramic covered hulls as you proposed.
We've already seen that they stuck with WWII designs for their weapons, and it makes sense. Making a new weapon would be difficult in their situation and they expect to fight on Earth. Also, a modern fire arm if properly prepared, by removing all liquid lubricants, can be fired in vacuum if done slowly in order to avoid barrel overheating. A specialized space gun might have radiator fins, or heat exchangers, or use a revolver chamber, but the Moon Nazis don't really need anything like that, even if it would be interesting.
the devil's in the details; therefore, the devil is funny - thumb up!