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Thinking on this... Peaceful uses of Military technology
Bloodhound sensor drones
1The idea was to enable any spacecraft built with GJ standard missile racks to be quickly convertible for search and rescue. Each Bloodhound consists of a standard RedBird missile casing with the warhead removed, and replaced with a tri-spectral sensor system. The standard guidance computer is retained, while the telemetry downlink bandwidth is increased to accomodate the sensor data. The existing missile engine is replaced with a slower-burning motor, trading initial acceleration for endurance. (Being light, and speed drive equipped however, means they are by no means slow)
Bloodhounds are designed to be volley fired, with an entire spacecraft's compliment being unleashed at once. They are then guided by the spacecraft's own missile guidance system along a search pattern. Raw sensor data is relayed from the individual Bloodhound along with the drone's estimated position and identifier tag back to the motership, where it is processed by the onboard computers and used to generate a sensor map of the surrounding space. The sensor operator can then determine which objects on the map are of interest or not (Or another computer system).
20 Bloodhounds are easily capable of thoroughly searching a 1-light-minute radius within a reasonable amount of time. Once a target has been found the drone can be set to act as a marker beacon, guiding rescue units onto the target
Bloodhounds are intended to be disposeable. They're fired once and then left behind. The components onboard are only guaranteed to operate for an hour after the initial launch though in general can be expected to last a little longer. The first Bloodhounds were, in fact, built using QC-reject parts from existing military systems, taken from batches which failed lifespan testing, before custom demilitarised components became available.
Bloodhounds are inferior to almost any dedicated sensor drone. They have limited range, surviveability and endurance, and have no onboard intelligent circuits or data analysis capability. They are also cheap enough to be bought and sold by the dozen, so cheap that recovering dead Bloodhounds is generally not economically viable, and simple enough to build using off-the-shelf parts that they can be manufactured almost anywhere by anyone. The plans are released under a GFDL license by the original designer (***WHITENOISE***). A number of modifications and refits of the basic Bloodhound exist, including a boosted endurance version which mounts a pair of solar PV panels to augment the onboard power supply, and any number of dedicated sensor types. An automated camera variant has found a niche providing coverage to asteroid races.
A larger version, the St. Bernard, launched from an anti-shipping missile tube, can also transport some emergency supplies to the stricken vessel it locates
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That, and the difference between a Railgun and a Mass Driver is the intent of the builder.
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I like this.
Might it be the sort of thing Cathy (as a sensors person) might have designed?
http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Cathy
Was the 'Bloodhound' inspired by this:
http://schlockmercenary.wikia.com/wiki/ ... rous_Array
http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2003-06-24
Just asking... [grin]
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Ace Dreamer Wrote:I like this.
Might it be the sort of thing Cathy (as a sensors person) might have designed?
http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Cathy
They build something similar for the Normandy:
Deep_Space_Drones
(designed it at the same time as the Normandy and then forgot to put it in the wiki).
They will have a few of them at the Little Big Bang Labs and Jenga in 2020... but then they have to deal with a strike before they can get more. 
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The only problem I see is space junk, but that's easily solved by having them Itano through the search volume before converging for pickup and refurb/scrapping. These give the Raven a definite peacetime role, since even just the leg missle racks have a few thousand tubes, and the arms and bomb bay could still carry a wing of variable fighters with the docking clamp adaptators, to do the actual retrieval (by mecha hand or the pilot E.V.A.) and fend off whatever hazards caused the problem in the first place.
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KJ Wrote:I don't know that that is something to bank on long term though, and in a hypothetical of, say, someone developing WMDs and people not wanting them to, there should be an answer to the question "And so what are you going to do about it?"
Yes, there must be something beyond "social pressure"... but it should be a "very last" means to keep Fenspace civil.
An embargo maybe? People who sign PEPPER also promise not to trade with people developing WMDs and NOT signing PEPPER? Of course this would get funny in terms of trading with Earth.
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Approved for general sale by Stonewell/Bellcom and Licensed to Black Aeronaut Technologies, 2019: The PRM-101 'Personnel Rescue Munition', aka 'The Bod-Pod Rod'.
This unit fits into any standard GJ missile hardpoint and accepts all of the usual tracking options (it prefers a combination of IR, RADAR, and a Life-Signs Detector, however). It is designed to lock on to a human exposed to vacuum and deliver its payload to that target.
The payload in question is a specially handwaved gel wrapped around a small oxygen cylinder. The oxygen pressure causes the gel to inflate as it approaches its target, until it becomes a 3-meter-diameter sphere. Exposure to vacuum causes the outer layers of the gel to harden and set almost as quickly as it inflates, becoming airtight within a second or two and containing the rescue objective. The inner layer forms an aerogel-like matrix designed to trap carbon dioxide in order to prevent a poisonous buildup.
The missile's propulsion system hydrolizes water, utilizing the hydrogen produced for its propulsion, storing the oxygen to transfer into the pod for the rescuee's use once inflated. Most humans will be able to survive for 30 to 40 minutes on the oxygen thus provided but anything over 20 minutes will probably require medical assistance afterwards.
It also includes a GJ-standard rescue beacon.
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Quote:ECSNorway wrote:
Approved for general sale by Stonewell/Bellcom and Licensed to Black Aeronaut Technologies, 2019: The PRM-101 'Personnel Rescue Munition', aka 'The Bod-Pod Rod'.
This unit fits into any standard GJ missile hardpoint and accepts all of the usual tracking options (it prefers a combination of IR, RADAR, and a Life-Signs Detector, however). It is designed to lock on to a human exposed to vacuum and deliver its payload to that target.
The payload in question is a specially handwaved gel wrapped around a small oxygen cylinder. The oxygen pressure causes the gel to inflate as it approaches its target, until it becomes a 3-meter-diameter sphere. Exposure to vacuum causes the outer layers of the gel to harden and set almost as quickly as it inflates, becoming airtight within a second or two and containing the rescue objective. The inner layer forms an aerogel-like matrix designed to trap carbon dioxide in order to prevent a poisonous buildup.
The missile's propulsion system hydrolizes water, utilizing the hydrogen produced for its propulsion, storing the oxygen to transfer into the pod for the rescuee's use once inflated. Most humans will be able to survive for 30 to 40 minutes on the oxygen thus provided but anything over 20 minutes will probably require medical assistance afterwards.
It also includes a GJ-standard rescue beacon.
That is exactly the kind of odd-ball thinking we need more of. Saving people from dying of suffocation by shooting a missile at them? Just the kind of thing to make other Sci-Fi universes go "what".
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The propulsion system as described simply won't work, I've realized since jotting this down in a burst of punch-drunk inspiration, so I'll need to rewrite a bit, but the basic premise stands.
Inspired by, of all things, the Macross 7 Dynamite OAVs.
As for being oddball... a missile is a delivery system. It can deliver explosives, it can deliver speaker pods (Basara, you Rock), it can deliver firefighting foam, it can deliver a human to orbit... why not a lifepod?
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Exactly. Cue dozens upon dozens of facepalms as people on the other side of any sci-fi Fenspace crossover go "Why didn't we think of that?"
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Nice idea, Norway. 
But also... A net. That's something else a missile can deliver. Although I'm pretty sure I've seen missile/rocket-delivered bolo nets somewhere before. Anyhow, it can be your standard missile with the payload replaced with industrial-strength silly string. Oh, and a tether. Because you need a way to haul 'em in after the fact.
Terrace Wrote:Exactly. Cue dozens upon dozens of facepalms as people on the other side of any sci-fi Fenspace crossover go "Why didn't we think of that?" I would think that the Weberites have done things like this for years. The Honorverse is full of different drones, sensor platforms and similar things.
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I kind of like the one from FLCL that splays out into a king (kong) size baseball mitt myself.
On a totally different tangent, do you suppose anyone has biomodded themselves a voicebox that lets them play with tractor/pressor focussed gravity waves and force bubbles yet? It only works if they're singing, or at least 'screaming musically' like a heavy metal vocalist, though...
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ClassicDrogn Wrote:I kind of like the one from FLCL that splays out into a king (kong) size baseball mitt myself.
On a totally different tangent, do you suppose anyone has biomodded themselves a voicebox that lets them play with tractor/pressor focussed gravity waves and force bubbles yet? It only works if they're singing, or at least 'screaming musically' like a heavy metal vocalist, though... That sounds fun, but I suspect that would be beyond the limits of a normal biomod. You'd probably need something unique, like a biomod combined with a cyber voice box replacement for cancer of the throat. And, I suspect you'd need a collar connected to a low-profile backpack, with a power supply, if you wanted to do anything more than move small household object around, like wine glasses.
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.... I think ace has the right of that conept
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
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So, like the SES vest to get results more impressive than party tricks? Still pretty close to source material, here. And yeah, I was already thinking along the lines of having needed a replacement throat premod.
(remaining Hoshikage Kouyou stuff broken out to a new thread by HRogge - thanks!)
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Back to our main topic...
what could be the "big stick" behind the nice "carrots" of the PEPPER treaty... how to deal with people who don't react to social pressure?
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new thread
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Quietly stop dealing with them.
It's hard to afford anything like ammunition, fuel or food and water when people won't buy what you're selling. And while some 'Humanitarian' goods may continue to be sold, OTOH it's not going to be a comfortable existance for anyone living there. Until they either run out of money, run out of food or run out of resolve and give up their weapons peacefully.
The alternative is that, feeling backed into a corner they come out fighting hoping to seize the resources they need, deal GJ a sharp blow to the chin while it's still sleeping and hope that the Convention won't have a taste for full scale war and will acquiesce to avoid escalating things to a bloody conclusion. Then again, considering what happened the last time someone tried that stunt, this may be naive of them.
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new thread
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Yeah, what Dartz said - Mars and Venus may be getting closer by 2020 but no one can really be totally self-sufficient in a space hab, there's just too much critical stuff that can break, and if you think you'll go without outside convenience items, tell that to the half of your population who want their Midol and tampons every month.
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new thread
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@ClassicDrogn: maybe you want to open your own thread for your ideas?
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If I'd thought it was going to be anything LIKE that long I would have, but it kind of spiralled away from me and by the time I realized it, it was already four posts interspersed with replies. I'll edit them blank if someone who can copy/paste cuts the relevant parts into a new Open Character thread for Hoshikage-san and her "Song Energy System" cyber/biomod tricks.
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blackaeronaut Wrote:... Anyhow, it can be your standard missile with the payload replaced with industrial-strength silly string. ... When Noah used the really strong (tensile strength) stuff in the second Port Phobos Invitational, he called it "ludicrous string" - because "silly" wasn't a sufficient description any more.
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robkelk Wrote:blackaeronaut Wrote:... Anyhow, it can be your standard missile with the payload replaced with industrial-strength silly string. ... When Noah used the really strong (tensile strength) stuff in the second Port Phobos Invitational, he called it "ludicrous string" - because "silly" wasn't a sufficient description any more. I'll take that as a 'go for it' then.
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