Archives

Title Posted
The basis for Manticoran inventiveness Jul 2005
Education reform in the Republic of Haven Jul 2005
Technical improvements in the Talbott Cluster Jul 2005
Locating new Manticoran shipyards Jul 2005
Mesan assassin nanotech Jul 2005
The rationale behind when to reveal Apollo's existence Jul 2005
Refitting to the Keyhole-II standard Jul 2005
Expanding upon the Eridani Edict Dec 2005
Manticore's relationship with Beowulf Dec 2005
Power of the Manticoran Monarchy Dec 2005

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Pearls of Weber

A collection of posts by David Weber containing background information for his stories, collected and generously made available Joe Buckley.

Using debris as a 'warp point denial system'

  • Series: Starfire With Steve White
  • Date: October 22, 2002

The problem is you can't do it at all, except on a closed warp point. The instant you dump the material into the space which would be occupied by an emerging starship, it goes through to the other side, where it simply becomes a debris cloud the ships pass through on their way into the warp point. The drive fields will give them plenty enough protection against that sort of normal-space impact on their way in.

Mines are not in the materialization area of the warp point; they are on the periphery, which is as close as they can get without literally making transit (whether they want to or not). To put the material into an area which would present a danger to emerging starships would require dumping it into the transit zone, which is one reason no starship has ever been lost to interpenetration with naturally occurring space junk making transit through an open warp point; the stuff simply can't stay even momentarily in a place where it would pose any danger to emerging ships.