Relativistic Kill Vehicle

[exostrike]

Many people have brought up the use of nuclear weapons against the Na'vi upon Humanities return. I myself have brought up the use of chemical weapons. However I now give you the ultimate in planet killing technolgy.


Simply put a Relativistic Kill Vechile or RKV is an object accelerated to a significant fraction of the speed of light and then impacts into a target using its kinetic energy to destroy it. This is because the faster an object is going the more destructive the exchange of energy on impact will be, its the same effect behind the damage caused by bullets. Such a weapon technically already exists in the Avatar timeline. Its the Captial star class ISV.

For maximun effectiveness it would be simplier to use the entire ship as the weapon. Since the mass numbers of the ISV have yet to be revealed the following is purely guesswork but assuming that the ship full loaded had a mass of 2500t and hit Pandora at 0.7c, then it will have a total explosive yield of 21.52 Gigatons. Assuming total conversion of potential in actual explosive yield, then the resulting fireball will 76km in Diameter. An explosion of this size woud produce third degree burns (and kill plant life) 700km from the point of denotation. To put this in the perspective of earth, this would devastate the continent of europe.

The effects on Pandora would be devastating. Beyond the area of devastation, Ewya would die of the shock of the impact, as the effects spreads through the neural net, causing ecological chaos. Then there is the nuclear winter as the impact crater is so deep that it would pierce the crust, initiating massive volcanic eruptions. In other words, the planet dies. And we have 12 of these.

However said weapon does make it difficult to mine Unobtainium, so in truth this weapon is purely a revenge weapon, a weapon fired off by a dying mankind to make sure that they take the Na'vi with them. The weapon is also inaccurate, unless you are few percise in you launch dates, hitting a target on Pandora is impossible, so you can't drop in on the tree of souls or Sully. Though if it does go volcano, being a near miss is worse than being in the blast area.

While the results would be horrifying to imagine, the pure logic of it is wonderful.

Claculators used:
Rocket Calc Online
Star Wars vs Star Trek: Nuclear Weapon Effects Calculator

[exostrike]

it also doesn't work, the 21 gigatons yield is dependent on 100% of the craft making it to impact, but a large ammount of mass will be lost due to amospheric friction (the speed of the craft will increase the friction and therefore the heat) in the fraction it is in the atmospher. Sure it will still devastate an large area, but it won't kill a world killer. And with that whats the point, if you can't kill the planet there no point of sacrificing one ship for nothing, if it hits on the other side of the planet you can't use it to threaten Sully due to the poor line of communication umong the Na'vi on a planetry scale.

[Tsyal Makto]

Does the word "genocide" mean nothing to those on the Skypeople Forum?

We really didn't learn from WWII/Soviet Union/Pol Pot, did we?

[Porthos1]

^ Obviously not. I think that Exostrike’s “solutions” would even make Quaritch pause and do a double take. Sheesh!

[exostrike]

^ Obviously not. I think that Exostrike’s “solutions” would even make Quaritch pause and do a double take. Sheesh!

While a RKV is very pratical in the Avatar universe it would require a mad man to use one. Either that or a man who feels he has nothing to lose by using it.

oh, and its also a sucide weapon. Due to the time delay in communications between earth and Alpha centauri and the complicated orbital mechanics involved, the ship has to be manned during its flight for final corse corrections. The crew cannot escape the ship before it impacts since they lack the ablity to slow down (anything leaving the ship would still be traveling at relativistic speeds) so this weapon requires the sacrifce of ten people in order to work.


Going on with my deconstruction of the weapon, there is also the problem of Polyphemu's and Pandora's orbital mechanics. For the weapon to work it must hit Pandora without slowing, requiring a straight line approach (the effects of stars not withstanding) as course changes will not change the direction of the craft greatly. If a direct approach is impossobile it might be possible to perform a sling shot syle sweep between Sol and Alpha centauri hoping to attack from a new direction, but this increases variables for failure. If no way of approaching Pandora without performing orbital maneuvers is available then the weapon won't have the relativistic speeds to work.

[Foxhound]

Exo is stating options not recommending them. A good commander looks at all options even the ones which are unspeakable. Even genocidal solutions should be considered due to the fact that they may be able to be modified or elements used in other solutions that are not genocidal in nature.

[ScottWashburn]

I had actually started work on a fan fic using this idea. Except that in my story it is a renegade human using an ISV to devastate EARTH in revenge for what the humans had done to Pandora (I was assuming that the RDA either won the first war or returned later and crushed the Na'vi and went back to raping the planet). I never finished it because it was just too darn depressing.

[Aihwa]

Exo is stating options not recommending them. A good commander looks at all options even the ones which are unspeakable. Even genocidal solutions should be considered due to the fact that they may be able to be modified or elements used in other solutions that are not genocidal in nature.

But if you hit a moon, (keyword, moon) with something at that size and speed you might crack the whole thing open.

[Palulukan_Taronyu]

The RDA WILL be back to Pandora with more men and more advanced technology.

The Na'vi will struggle to survive.

[Tsyal Makto]

If I were a human remaining on Pandora I'd be looking at ways to destroy ISVs that attempt to return. The only KKV I'd support is one pointed directly at the fusion/antimatter core of an inbound ISV. Bet the fireworks would be spectacular.

Or I'd find ways to conscript them and their crews to form a rebel military force to take the fight back to the RDA in the Sol system.

I smell a fanfic...