General situation: nicked from one of my old scenarios,
the plucky Jovians [1] have cunningly got the largest economy in the
Solar System pissed off at them and can reasonably expect
a fairly massive invasion fleet to start taking the outer moons
any day now (And because stealth is impossible, they know
exactly when the fleet will arrive).
No doubt they will apply any number of defensive measures
but the one I am curious about is if it's worth trying to make
Jupiter's Van Allen Belts even more unfriendly than they are [2].
This will have the undesirable effect of making space travel for the
Jovians more difficult (although the long-range fleet that is
coming in probably has less mass budget for shielding than
short-range ships) so it may be the equivelent of handing pointed
sticks to ones civilian population and ordering themselves to
sell themselves dearly, something you only do as a final resort.
It's also not clear to me whether this will effect enough
of Jupiter's moon system to be worth the bother. It will make using
the Oberth manuever more difficult but I can't imagine invaders
would use that.
So, how difficult would it be to duplicate the effects of
the Starfish Prime test around Jupiter?
1: They're not actually Jovians in the sense of living in Jupiter but
Plucky Guys Who Live in Jupiter's Moons is too long.
2: Insert the old thread about making Jupiter's vicinity somewhat
less lethal.
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