Quote:
Originally Posted by dworth
But what if the time lag is longer, say minutes, hours or days, during which time the location and heading of the target could drastically change? Distances in space are h-u-g-e. Even if your weapons travel to the target at the speed of light they could still take hours to reach it even if you're just trying to hit something in the same star system. If the target isn't moving in a predictable manner it would be near impossible to hit without some sort of independent ability to home in and overcome any defences the target might have, and then of course you have problem of packing the engines and fuel into a weapon and making it fast enough to arrive at the target quickly enough and with enough speed, manouevrability and machine based cunning to correct its course, evade defences and hit the target.
Over greater distances it could become ridiculous. Imagine trying to shoot down a plane by trying to predict where it might be next Thursday.
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C J Cherryh wrote about this sort of space combat in her SF novels (Heavy Time, Hellburner, Downbelow Station etc.) Your longscan starts off showing the enemy way over the other side of a solar system and you plot your tactics accordingly, but they jumped in-system at near the speed of light so before you know it they're on top of you raking you with laser fire. It's one of the best depictions of space battle I've ever read. That and the climactic battle in Footfall.
Andrew