Looking for calcs

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2003-04-12 01:31pm

On the slave 1 firing at asteroids over geonosis scene. I've seen them posted before where someone showed how the value comes out at 1.4 KT, and I would like to see them again as a resource. Thank you.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2003-04-12 08:30pm

I know these are out there, I've seen them at SB before.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-04-12 10:12pm

Ender wrote:I know these are out there, I've seen them at SB before.

Depends on the material composition and size of the asteroids. Can't speak for whoever did calcs at SB; those guys can be all over the map when it comes to method.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2003-04-12 10:13pm

As I recall, HDS was involved somehow and the assumption was iron.

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2003-04-17 04:38am

Back with some info, about a 11-12m asteroid was half vaporized and half shattered in the AOTC chase, it seems like atleast 50% of the asteroid was vaporized, more likely and the rest of the asteroid was blown away as fragments.

So for simplicity's sake we'll say all the bolt power went into the vaporized part then and disregard inefficiencies, the asteroid was somewhat spherical so we can use that too for ease, anyhow, vaporizing around 87m^3 of iron requires about 5.2TJ, or 1.2KT

This is my rough calculation anyway.

OK, another calculation on the second asteroid destroyed.

Asteroid shape, roughly cylindrical:
Actually this was a much larger asteroid but the bolt struck a roughly cyldindrical section that extended and blew it to heck(and a little of the rest of the asteroid too, but we ignore that now), here's the rough info on the asteroid(it might vary 1-2meters either way).

Diameter:
15m
Height:
10m

Volume:
1178m^3 - looks like 30-50% was mostly vaporized, rest turned into glowing half melted fragments, for conservatism's sake, say 15% only(probably too low), so thats 176m^3, round it off to 170m^3 to be nice.

Mass vaporized:
1337900kg, round off to 1.3 million

Energy Required:
9.9TJ or 2.3KT

If we assume I was 2 meters too high in my estimate, doubt it myself(possibly 1m) then we get:
5.8TJ or 1.4KT

So, even with my rather crude calcs I did get a figure inbetween the figure Saxton put as the max one.

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2003-04-17 09:38am

Wouldn't it be easier to just get reasonable size estimate for the target and run it through Mike's Asteroid Destruction Calculator?

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2003-04-17 10:55am

Ted C wrote:Wouldn't it be easier to just get reasonable size estimate for the target and run it through Mike's Asteroid Destruction Calculator?

Nope, since all of the destroyed volumes where than 10 meters, mikes calculator doesn't do anything smaller than 10metres, what might actually be vaporised here is around 3-7meters or so.

Mike's calculator is also based on chemical explosives, not radiation.

My estimates where pretty rough too, but I'd trust them to be somewhat accurate.

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2003-04-17 11:17am

His Divine Shadow wrote: Nope, since all of the destroyed volumes where than 10 meters, mikes calculator doesn't do anything smaller than 10metres, what might actually be vaporised here is around 3-7meters or so.

I can see where this would be an issue, assuming there are NO asteroids of at least 10m diameter to assess.

His Divine Shadow wrote: Mike's calculator is also based on chemical explosives, not radiation.

Mike's calculator is based on the energy required to accomplish the task; I don't really see how the means of generating/delivering the energy is all that relevant.

His Divine Shadow wrote: My estimates where pretty rough too, but I'd trust them to be somewhat accurate.

That's fine; just seemed like extra work.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2003-04-17 12:26pm

HDS: Thanks, but I had already found them. Now I just need to find shots of the asteroids used.

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2003-04-17 02:08pm

Ted C wrote:Mike's calculator is based on the energy required to accomplish the task; I don't really see how the means of generating/delivering the energy is all that relevant.

Efficency, a chemical explosive is far more effective than a laser, or nuke, or any weapon whose main form of energy release is in the form of radiation.

And when it comes to shattering/cratering and whatnot, the placement of the charge becomes important too.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-04-17 05:58pm

His Divine Shadow wrote:
Ted C wrote:Mike's calculator is based on the energy required to accomplish the task; I don't really see how the means of generating/delivering the energy is all that relevant.
Efficency, a chemical explosive is far more effective than a laser, or nuke, or any weapon whose main form of energy release is in the form of radiation.

And when it comes to shattering/cratering and whatnot, the placement of the charge becomes important too.

He's right. The radiation must heat and vaporize rock to provide desintegration and significant kinetic energy into the target.

An explosive directly infuses kinetic energy waves into the asteroid.