Nuclear Weapons More Powerful Than Photonic Torpedeos????!!

[Dilandu]

The photon torpedoes not necessary are more powerfull. They are more compact. There are limits about the theoretical efficiency of nuclear/thermonuclear weapon. Roughly, the upper limit is 6 megaton per ton, according to Teller.

Basically it means, that the 60-megaton nuclear device would have a mass about 10 tons.

But we need only a 1,2 kg of antimatter and matter to produce same sort of blast.

I.e. we could make photon warhead MUCH more compact that the nuclear of the same power.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Didn't say there were, my point on proximity blasts stands.

Actually, your point was another topic entirely. My point was in regards to photon torpedoes that missed their targets and just sailed on harmlessly by them.

 

[Dilandu]

Actually, your point was another topic entirely. My point was in regards to photon torpedoes that missed their targets and just sailed on harmlessly by them.

Well, this is space, after all. Even with emgaton scale weapon, a few miles miss would mean gradual decrease in weapon effectiveness. The inverse-square law, after all. And it seems that photon torpedoes doesn't have any means to focus the blast - like shaped-charge nukes could.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Well, this is space, after all. Even with emgaton scale weapon, a few miles miss would mean gradual decrease in weapon effectiveness. The inverse-square law, after all. And it seems that photon torpedoes doesn't have any means to focus the blast - like shaped-charge nukes could.

It actually is more of a case of torpedoes just missing their targets and not doing any damage, either due to a failed target lock or the enemy ship able to successfully evade them.

 

[Dilandu]

It actually is more of a case of torpedoes just missing their targets and not doing any damage, either due to a failed target lock or the enemy ship able to successfully evade them.

Ah, you mean this? Well, it seems that the torpedoes have limited maneuvrability and only capable of course corrections in certain limits. Make sence; they are supposed to be small and cheap (well, the Cardassian tried to make torpedo, that was actually able to work by itself... it doesn't work, but only by force majour)

 

[C.E. Evans]

Ah, you mean this? Well, it seems that the torpedoes have limited maneuvrability and only capable of course corrections in certain limits...

Yeah, that was basically it.

 

[VulcanMindBlown]

The photon torpedoes not necessary are more powerfull. They are more compact. There are limits about the theoretical efficiency of nuclear/thermonuclear weapon. Roughly, the upper limit is 6 megaton per ton, according to Teller.

Basically it means, that the 60-megaton nuclear device would have a mass about 10 tons.

But we need only a 1,2 kg of antimatter and matter to produce same sort of blast.

I.e. we could make photon warhead MUCH more compact that the nuclear of the same power.

So they are more powerful en masse? Why doesn't Star Fleet and other major galactic powers use them?

 

[jgalley]

It's almost impossible to tell given that weapons in Star Trek are 1) made up and 2) powerful as plot demands.

They aren't consistent in their power or destructive force. Kirk once says a single photon torpedo (if I remember correctly from one episode of ToS) could level a city....yet in the following series we never see a photon torpedo do that kind of damage. And wasn't it Nomad's attack that contained the power of "90 photon torpedoes" and yet the Enterprise shields held? We've never seen any ship hold up against that many hits of a torpedo...ever..in following star trek series or battles.

So...there's really no way to accurately tell any of it.

 

[Dilandu]

So they are more powerful en masse? Why doesn't Star Fleet and other major galactic powers use them?

You missed the point.

The nuclear devices are more MASSIVE per megaton than photon torpedoes. As I pointed above, the nuclear warhead of 50 megaton would have a mass about 10 tons. More than 10 times than photon torpedo whole.

It's simple logistic: the avaliable cargo mass on the spaceship is limited, so the weapon must be mass-effective.

 

[Go-Captain]

Photonic torpedoes are in the 30 Mt range max, and can be dialed down to - what was it - blow the antenna off a hull, and they are probably shielded, and have engines and warp sustainers, so there is a lot more going on in that 1.8 meter package than just a bunch of bang. For comparison there is the W80 nuclear warhead with a 5-150 kt yield.

A photon torpedo's warhead (which should be the same size as a photonic torpedo's since everything else is) with a 54 isoton yield, whatever an isoton is (possibly enough to destroy a planet).

Those spacemagicnukes go beyond theoretical atomic efficiency.

 

[VulcanMindBlown]

Is that a nuclear weapon in that meme, Go-Captain?

 

[Dilandu]

Is that a nuclear weapon in that meme, Go-Captain?

Well, there is no physical limits for how large a Teller-Ulam thermonuclear bomb could be. As far as I could recall, the most powerfull nuke ever suggested was the 10-gigaton bomb, proposed by Ulam himself. It was supposed to have mass about the thousand tons, and was supposed to be delivered by the "Doomsday Orion" nuclear-pulse missile.

Yeah, all this grey area in front is the bomb. Actually, the lithium deuteride supply for the bomb, and primer charge of megaton scale)

Probably even Borg Cube would not like to be hit with something such powerfull)

 

[publiusr]

I can see this outfutted with a warp ring and used in the final days of the Romulan War. The treaty signed before it could be used.

 

[Dilandu]

I can see this outfutted with a warp ring and used in the final days of the Romulan War. The treaty signed before it could be used.

Or it could be used) And the effect forced Romulans to actually sign the treaty (Hiroshima-like scenario)