Lunar combat - Reply

> Somehow I missed it, but Thomas Barclay wrote:

> I'm not sure what the movement you are looking at is like, but I'd
1. Banking to turn sharper is mostly (AFAIK) a technique that utilizes air
pressure to aid the turn (Hence the Star Wars fighter game is true to the
movies but an offence to physics)
2. Gravity on the lunar surface is like 1/6th of earth. It is there, but
won't have as much pull as earth, hence dives to build up energy will be less
effective, and energy losses as one climbs will be less pronounced. <<

Correct in both cases, although a qualifier or two may be in order: 1) Banking
to turn can be used without an atmosphere; what the ship is doing in that case
is using motion about the pitching axis to change its heading. An example
could be Narn Frazi fighters, which are very flat and don't have side or
reverse thrusters; what the pilots do is roll and pitch the ship, using the
thrusters mounted behind the cockpit. This is the space equivalent of
"twist-to-steer" control, as used by some missiles -- although the
missiles are using aerodynamic lift to do the turning; spacecraft have to use
thrusters or the main drive(s). 2) Energy gains and losses from diving and
climbing (respectively) will be equal in an airless environment, and will both
be advantageous (i.e., the gains will be greater and the losses smaller) when
compared to motion in an atmosphere because there won't be the added losses
due to drag. Having said that, the size of the changes will be much less on
the Moon than on Earth due to the much smaller gravitational strength.

Jon T. replied:
> AFAIK, diving in an airless environment will simply slam you into the

Again, correct, although this assumes that the vehicle in question isn't
moving at orbital velocities. If it is, then a "dive" is a perfectly good way
to pick up some speed, courtesy of the change in gravitational potential
energy.

> Combat over the lunar surface should (IMHO) be just like combat in

Only if you're using _large_ altitude excursions (I missed the start of
this; are we
talking FT or SG/DS combat here?)

> ...constantly pulling you "down" toward the surface -- in other words,

This sounds like SG/DS -- anything at orbital speeds will require either
a _huge_
map, or the grav vector will be miniscule.

Phil