<br><br><br>--<br>Carlos&nbsp;Alós-Ferrer<br>Chair&nbsp;of&nbsp;Microeconomics,&nbsp;University&nbsp;of&nbsp;Cologne<br>http://www.decisions.uni-koeln.de<p><br>
Am 05-May-2016 09:59:15 +0200 schrieb xxxxxx@simplelists.com:
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On Wed, 5/4/16, Tim &lt;<a href="mailto:xxxxxx@little-possums.net" target="_blank">xxxxxx@little-possums.net</a>&gt; wrote:<br><br>
 Subject: Re: Gaussbow?  was Re: [TML] The Anachronistic Future<br>
 To: <a href="mailto:xxxxxx@simplelists.com" target="_blank">xxxxxx@simplelists.com</a><br>
 Date: Wednesday, May 4, 2016, 8:05 PM<br><br>
 On Thu, May 05, 2016 at<br>
 01:23:09AM +0000, Phil Pugliese (via tml list) wrote:<br>
 &gt; But that leads to another thought: What if<br>
 the standard shipboard<br>
 &gt;<br>
 "sidearm" is a pistol crossbow?<br>
 &gt; <br>
 &gt;<br>
 --------------------------------------------------------------<br>
 &gt; <br>
 &gt; How about a  pistol<br>
 'gaussbow' that fires (launches?)  the same<br>
 thing?<br>
 &gt; <br>
 &gt; or maybe<br>
 uses compressed gas?<br><br>
 I<br>
 figure that the "fragile ships" thing is a red<br>
 herring -- or even an<br>
 AF plot device in its<br>
 own right.<br><br>
 Starship crew<br>
 members aren't going to blow a hole in the hull with<br>
 any<br>
 reasonable personal sidearm, because<br>
 Traveller ship hulls are required<br>
 to be<br>
 extremely tough -- even the civilian ones.  You may damage<br>
 some<br>
 internal ship systems, but the most<br>
 critical ones will have backups,<br>
 some<br>
 armouring, and be well out of the usual way anyway.<br><br>
 If the worst does happen, well<br>
 ... once you're in the position where<br>
 you're drawing lethal weapons, you've<br>
 already accepted that people are<br>
 likely to<br>
 die.  You're going to want effective weapons to<br>
 increase the<br>
 chance that it's the<br>
 enemy.  Blades or gaussbows are likely to be<br>
 bulky, heavy, and not as effective in most<br>
 situations as other choices<br>
 for a standard<br>
 weapon.<br><br>
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As I recall, CT had the 'accelerator rifle', a type  of gauss weapon that was optimized for low recoil to use in, or in case of, zero-G.<br><br>
I agree that TU hulls are actually pretty tough &amp; probably should be considered a sort of semi-armor.<br>
In fact, 'armoring'  important systems may just be sandwiching them 'tween a section of double hull.<br><br>
Sure there are FGMP's &amp; PGMP's but no sane sophont is going to fire up one of them inside a starship travelling thru space.<br><br>
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