Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 20:00:02 -0600
From: Hansen <hansen@phonet.com>
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To: halo@bungie.org
Subject: Ring Rotation and Weapons Usage


Jeff Smith makes interesting point with the air not keeping up with
the ring. Perhaps the walls are high enough only a small portion is
pulled along rapidly making a jet stream. this does not however
solve the problem that occurs with the ground airspeed but it does
allow for a small amount of a chance that the gravity closer to the
surface of the ring would hold a small amount of oxygen at
rotational speed. Dropships or landing craft would have an
exceedingly difficult problem combating wind shear and other
atmospheric disturbances that could disrupt and crash most things.
However if we could disregard the effects of air in a closed
centrifugal system. landing would be relatively easy. All a pilot
would have to do would be match speeds with the internal rotation of
the ring itself.  But then you have to have the difficulty of
finding a dropship that can match speeds with a ring that is
clipping along at such a phenomenal rate to maintain a relative
Earth gravity. I am guessing that most dropships would have a hard
time keeping up with the rate of speed in question (but the POA
might not have).  Following along with the merry go round is a
perfect analogy. If you run fast enough on the outside of the ring
(assuming its large enough) you can match speeds and jump from the
ground to the merry go round without having the unfortunate side
effect of having your arms pulled from the sockets. As Jeff
mentioned before the use of projectile weapons presents an exciting
difficulty (see Jeff's theory). Assuming that the creators of Halo
have found a way to stimulate "Natural" gravity then we can discount
problems normally associated with projectiles in such an
environment. I does however raise the interesting possibility that
projectiles (artillery) launched into a high altitude could traverse
massive distances and still hit targets accurately because of the
constancy of the ring's spin and because of the lessening of gravity
as the object reaches a higher point. Almost in the same manner as
ITBM's (Inter theater ballistic missile's) but without the rocket
propulsion. It also allows for the ability to seed mines or other
high explosives in a LHO (low Halo orbit) and if the time arises it
would give an interesting type of orbital bombardment. That is if
the descent could be aimed with any degree of accuracy.

Please feel free to criticize or add to my theories here. My goal is
to gain knowledge from other peoples insight into the matters at
hand with Halo. No one ever learns by not failing sometime in life,
and I enjoy being purely wrong, it teaches me humility and lets me
learn from my mistakes. But if I am wrong educate me and do not
simply tell me I am full of hot air. But remember, none of us has
all the facts concerning Halo.

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