NationStates Jolt Archive

I am confused by my dillema.

Would Orbital Bombers be modern tech, post-modern, or future?

I am firmly with Modern Tech because projects like this existed since the 60's. Look at the Dynasoar and Spiral 50/50 projects. They are 1960's tech that are basically orbital bombers.

Also note the Uragan Spaceplane and TU-2000.

Link: Spiral (http://www.astronautix.com/craft/spiralos.htm)
Uragan (http://www.astronautix.com/craft/uraeptor.htm)
TU-2000 (http://www.astronautix.com/craft/tu2000.htm)

Post-modern I think...
From what I know, we COULD build an orbital bomber these days, it just wouldnt be very effecient, it costs quite a bit to get stuff up, and the bomb itself would cost quite alot, with shielding and all.
I suppose you could build a orbital nuke-launcher, possibly even a one-use railgun of some sort, it would make a quite nice first-strike weapon if you could keep it secret, since everybody with a telescope would be watching it otherwise.
And most modern guys would scream 'GODMOD!' at it anyway...

And most modern guys would scream 'GODMOD!' at it anyway...

Most modern guys scream "GODMOD" at anything that means they won't win.

At any rate, I'd say this is post modern. Best thing to go with is some sort of sattalite launched kinetic missile.

Did you guys check my links?

That's the stuff I mean.

Recyclable hypersonic modules from 1960's era.

Tu-2000, however, was developed right during Modern-Tech.

1986-2004. They continue to work on it.

Sure we could have pput stuff up there in the 1960s but that is way to costly and the onlyones crazy enough that did it were the Russians. Unfortunately for you guys I am a FT RPer and a Warhammer40k Fanatic! Why did small orbital bomardments when shelling the hell out of it and then droping a virus bomb that nothing has ever survived from is so much FUN!

Lord Ragen Paranoia

Lord of the 14th Company of Space Wolves

Post Modern, Early Future.

While you bring up the projects, they are experimental. The concept of Orbital Bombers generally is on a continued basis. Meaning decades of R&D (Research and Development) and probably billions of dollars investment.

You then (ICly) need to worry about things like safety, getting the system (and payload) up and then safely down again, plus the issue of reuse. Payload's a big worry, considering that the current space shuttles require billions each time they go up and they only carry such "simple" things as satellites and other such equipment. And remember that the space shuttle is "simple" and that technology has been around decades, yet has such little payoffs.

Comrades, I hope you have read the articles on the links.

Most of those projects are designed to be extremely cost-efficient.

TU-2000 and Tu-360 (not covered in articles) have both been developed in prototype form. They are very cheap to operate.

But as they are just prototypes, they haven't gone into Full Active Service, they therefore cannot be considered "modern", in my opinion.

Past Tech = Anything that has been in active service and has now been made fully obsolete by newer Tech. For Example, a Catapult is Past Tech, as is a Second World War Battle Tank

Modern Tech = Stuff we see and hear about today that are in common use. Automatic Weapons, Jet Planes (although the orginal Jet planes were built in WW2, they didn't really reach full active service status until afterwards), RADAR, Satellite Navigation and Surveillence.

Post-Modern = Stuff that is being worked on today, that is in the Experimental, not Theoretical Stage. A MODERN Tech nation could have experimental Post Modern Tech but it would be unreliable and be in no great numbers. A POST MODERN Tech nations would have these items as their base tech. Orbital Missile Defences (in fact, most non-surveillence Orbital uses), RailGuns, very crude LASER weapons, Superconductors.

Future Tech = Weird stuff that is either theoretical or entirely fiction. LightSabres, FTL Drives, Full LASER/Blaster/PHASER weapons, Common Extra-Orbital Space Flight, Droid Soldiers, Cold Fusion Reactors powering indiviual WarMachines. The Force. "Force Fields".

I'd say it's late post-modern.

And I know what you mean. If I use anything non-modern, someone always screams "godmod". It's quite annoying really.

Although I agree that orbital bombers are post-modern tech, nuclear missiles based on sattelites are VERY possible.

The real problem is that in RL the Soviets and US decided not to weaponize space...so very little development was done on weapons (defense systems, yes...weapons, no).

But that doesn't mean that the technology doesn't exist.

I'm a strictly modern tech nation. However, I have a large orbital system called Metal Rain. Its a low tech approach to large, fixed target bombardment.

Our costs for going to space have dropped with the frequency of our visits - our technology is all modern - but has moved in a different direction than RL technology has.

W