Re: Return to No Stealth in Space

On 21 m=E4rts, 11:31, sigidu...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
> On Mar 20, 11:56 pm, jdnic...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (James Nicoll) wrote:
>
> >         Nah, it's only 10 megatons/second. The Earth is big. It
> > can suck up a lot of energy.
>
> In very round numbers, this is ~1/10 billionth the output of the Sun.
>
> The Sun is ~150 million km away.  To be as bright as the Sun, the
> drive would have to be (sqrt 10 billion=3D) 10^5 times closer than the
> Sun.  That's about 1500 km.
>
> At Space Shuttle altitudes -- ~400 km -- the drive would be more than
> 10 times as bright as the Sun.  Since this thing can accelerate at one
> gee forever, it can make a slow pass over a region of the Earth,
> letting 10 times solar brightness ****ne for as long as it cares to.
>
> I'm not sure how long it would take to kill everyone under the plume,
> but assuming that everyone dies after a few minutes at ambient 120 C,
> I think we're talking less than an hour.
>
> The area affected isn't quite a continent, but you could cook, say,
> California no problem.
>
> Check my math?
>
> Doug M.

Compare:

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/doctrine/dod/fm8-9/1ch4.htm

1x solar luminosity is 0,14 watts per square cm. 10x solar luminosity
is 1,4 watts per square cm.

Table 4-VI. Consider a 10 MT air burst at the range of 14,5 km. This
can cause second degree burns on exposed skin by delivering a total of
29,3 joules per square cm. Which is equivalent to the ac***ulated
sunlight of 210 s. 70 % of the thermal energy is delivered over 12 s -
which means it is about 12 times the luminosity of Sun averaged over
12 s.

2nd degree flash burns over exposed skin are commonly fatal...