Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 20:00:02 -0600 From: Hansen <hansen@phonet.com> X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 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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