StarDestroyer.Net BBS

As an alternate attack, if a Star Destroyer was suppose to basically pacify an Earth like Planet, how many shots would it take for the ship to melt the polar ice cap?

Kitsune wrote:As an alternate attack, if a Star Destroyer was suppose to basically pacify an Earth like Planet, how many shots would it take for the ship to melt the polar ice cap?

Given that an ISD's firepower isn't exactly determinable past a three order of magnitude or so bracket, I suspect the answer is 'that depends'.

If there are ten million km^2 of northern ice, and the ice is, on average, 3 m deep, then there are 2e13 m^3 of ice. Given a density of 0.9 g/cm^3, starting temperature of 255.3 K and change up to 273.2 K, specific heat of 2.1 J/gK, and latent heat of melting of 335 J/g, we have

(0.9 g/cm^3)(2e19 cm^3)((2.1 J/gK)(17.9 K)+(335 J/g)) = 6.7e21 J to melt the ice caps.

As a dedicated warship, an ISD ought to be able to channel almost all of its reactor power into its guns. This gives, according to Dr Saxton, some 13.4 milliseconds of output time, if an ISD has only a little over twice an Acclamator's power output.

Another way of looking at this is with the 200 gigatons/shot estimate from the ICS2: 200 gigatons = 2e5 megatons = 8e20 J, so we only need three shots, if I've calculated this correctly.

Of course, the energy input isn't going to be evenly distributed, and you're going to have the ice flash into steam instead of evenly melt, so it may require an additional shot or two.

Wouldn't the energy be better spent blasting ocean near the coasts or pumping a blast into a couple of unstable fault lines? The resulting boiling water/wave and earthquake damage, respectively, would be sufficient to pacify any world that values survival.

Coyote wrote:Wouldn't the energy be better spent blasting ocean near the coasts or pumping a blast into a couple of unstable fault lines? The resulting boiling water/wave and earthquake damage, respectively, would be sufficient to pacify any world that values survival.

My thoughts on the matter are that this scenario and others like it are a result of creativity on the part of the ISD captain and a nice intellectual exercise for us. It also helps us to appreciate the amazing power of our mascot.