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[Tack]

But as soon as I focus on him I'm forced to try and explain what he did.
A single person with, I can only assume, the resources of the 2200's American Tea Party, using bleeding-edge yet conventional explosives in order to take a blind swing at the fabric of causality/spacetime.

I am not physicist enough for this.

[Parsely]

But as soon as I focus on him I'm forced to try and explain what he did.
A single person with, I can only assume, the resources of the 2200's American Tea Party, using bleeding-edge yet conventional explosives in order to take a blind swing at the fabric of causality/spacetime.

I am not physicist enough for this.

Less Forever War more Hitchhiker's Guide.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

If a spaceship had a large railgun (let's say same ratio of gun to ship as there is on an A-10 warthog) would it be able to use asteroids (possibly shaped into projectiles by another ship) as munitions?

[Culise]

A typical rail gun?  Hypothetically, if your asteroid had enough iron or other ferrous metals (say, nickel) inside of it, I shouldn't see any special reason why not.  Your typical carbonaceous or silicaceous objects need not apply, but that still leaves a bit under ten percent of known asteroids, some significantly smaller fraction of which should have the nickel-iron composition you wish for.  With how many asteroids exist, that low percentage should still translate into a relatively high absolute number.  If you carry a conductive jacket or armature to carry your payload, you could extend that to by cramming your C- or S-type asteroids into there as well, though I suspect this starts to lose the point of firing asteroids instead of purpose-built projectiles (that is, easing logistics by scavenging your muntions on the battlefield).  It feels like it would be much safer and more effective to use purpose-built projectiles, though; I suspect the last thing you'd want is for an uneven internal composition to cause your asteroid to shatter inside your asteroid gun as it's being accelerated.  At best, it's mildly embarrassing as you need to clear and reload the gun.  At worst, you lose the gun and possibly anything around the barrel.

[PTTG??]

If a spaceship had a large railgun (let's say same ratio of gun to ship as there is on an A-10 warthog) would it be able to use asteroids (possibly shaped into projectiles by another ship) as munitions?

Yes, but "shaped" is a big problem. You might as well smelt them if you're doing all that work, the savings in time isn't really balanced out by the risky performance.

A bigger problem is action and reaction. Ships are light, metal slugs are comparatively dense. Considering that the A-10, fully loaded, is more than 50% ammo, your spaceship will have strange performance characteristics.

I recommend an alternative. Use your high-performance rocket drive (You're using SOMETHING impressive if it can fight effectively in space despite having nearly no fuel tank compared to most ships) as a weapon. Relativistic exhaust sprays are downright TERRIFYING.

[GiglameshDespair]

What part of it? Using two cylinders rotating opposite eachother or keeping the whole thing in a single tube instead of overlapping rings?

Not any part of it in particular, but it'd be a functional space habitat using rotation to provide gravity.

If a spaceship had a large railgun (let's say same ratio of gun to ship as there is on an A-10 warthog) would it be able to use asteroids (possibly shaped into projectiles by another ship) as munitions?

Such a thing would be called a mass driver. It could be used as a weapon or an engine.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

When I said shape I meant like cutting off any prices that might be jutting out or making it unable to fit or cause problems while firing. Not shaping the whole thing just cutting off any excess


And yeah a flying mass driver

[Insanegame27]

Then you'd want a coilgun, not a railgun?

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

What is the big difference between the two?
They both use magnets to accelerate projectiles yes?

[Insanegame27]

Railguns accelerate things on rails. The magnetic current travels along the two(?) rails whereas a coilgun has a magnetic coil around the barrel that accelrates the projectile

You can lob anything that fits in the barrel of a coilgun, if the thing is magnetic. A railgun has its benefits, but the projectile must be shaped to sit on rails

[Amperzand]

A railgun's projectile need only be conductive, and able to close a circuit between the rails, which creates a massive amount of force, pulling the projectile along the barrel and creating a huge electrical arc/explosion.

A coilgun uses a series of electromagnetic coils to accelerate a ferromagnetic projectile through the space between them. Unlike railguns, a coilgun's projectile need be no particular shape, and doesn't need to touch the "Barrel" at any point.

Railguns are much simpler mechanically, and theoretically more durable, but they wear out very quickly as a result of extreme stresses on the "Barrel" rails. Seriously, you have to replace or switch out the barrel every five shots, preferably sooner.

Coilguns are rather more complex, and theoretically more fragile, but experience almost no wear as a result of firing, allowing them to continue firing almost as long as there is power and ammunition, assuming an adequate cooling system.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

I think I'm sticking with rail guns

[Culise]

Ah, yep, I definitely glitched out mentally, then, mixing up railguns with coilguns.  Rather than the "maybe" in my post, you absolutely will need some sort of sabot, jacket, or armature to fire asteroids out of a rail gun, then; even an M-type nickel-iron asteroid cannot be relied upon to make a complete conductive loop from one rail to the other.  I suppose that helps with structural integrity, too; cramming the asteroid's mass into a jacket or sabot lets you use said jacket or sabot to contain the asteroid in the event of any fractures or the like, and you don't have to worry as much about the magnetic fields generating varying forces inside the asteroid itself quite as much. 

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Maybe have the set of snapper ships have some that put a metal sheet over the thing or cut flat sides and add rails or some other feature to allow that to work

[GiglameshDespair]

In truth, asteroids aren't ideal as weapons. A asteroid mass driver can be used as a weapon in much the same way as a woodaxe can be used to hack at someone; it works, but there is a difference between axes designed for cutting wood and axes designed for war.

In the book The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, the moon colony uses a mass driver originally designed for exporting grain to bombard Earth and force them to accept independence.