ALL SCI-FI

[mach7]

The mirrors need not be heavy. They can be made of thin, flexible material. Plastic or foil. It can be inflatable once on sight. This way they can be made very large.

I like Krel's idea of being terror weapons. They don't need to be accurate, just accurate enough to hit the USA.
2 or 3 large mirrors in all 3 locations could keep up a near continuous heat barrage on the US.

Krel's idea of lobbing large masses at the US is very workable.

Depending on how ambitious the Soviets want to get they could go from 4 V2s strapped together. 2 to boost the mass towards the earth. One or both for course corrections, and whatever is left to increase the impact speed.

Or really get big and build an electromagnetic launching rail to continuously launch masses at the US. You don't even need to be accurate, just keep launching.

[Bud Brewster]

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Mark, I stand corrected on the nature of the mirrors.

I forgot how light sails were constructed. That same system is what you have in mind for the solar mirrors.

Great idea!

However, you and I have very different ideas for the purpose of the terror missiles and the solar mirrors. Russia just wants to cow American into submission — not wipe us off the face of planet!

They're plan (according to yours and David's improved version of my original concept) is to demonstrate what they can do with these weapons — hopefully in areas where no life is lost so as not to provoke us into a war — and then demand that America withdraw their military personal all over the world.

If their plan succeeds, they'll never have to fire another terror weapon again! They'll have won, and America will be kept in check by the threat of a second, more serious demonstration.

They certainly don't want to force us into an all-out war . . . with "mutually assured destruction"!

Remember, all this is based on the Destination Moon comment which claimed, "There is no defense against an attack from the Moon."

It's sort of like the message at the end of War Games.

"The only way to win at tic-tac-toe . . . is NOT to play."
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[mach7]

It doesn't really work with this scenario, but Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" gives the definitive plane for holding Earth hostage from the Moon.

Hidden linear accelerators to lob large masses at the earth.

It needs lots of power and lots of infrastructure. Two things the 1950's Soviets would not have available on the moon.

[Bud Brewster]

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Right again, Mark!

So, lets revise the original strategy, using all the ideas we've come up with.

First, the Soviets launch large rockets which carried enhanced V-2s which carry nuclear weapons.





They inform the U.S. that they will nuke key cities if we don't withdraw our military from Europe and Asia. We have no choice, so we do it. (Never mind the fact that the missiles might not hit their targets.)

Then the Russians improve their threat by developing the "Terror Weapons", which use massive rocks from the Moon, propelled by rocket engines attached them.

The advantage, of course, is that no nukes were required, no exact targeting was needed, and no nuclear radiation would be created in the impact area!

The citizens of our great nation become terrified by the constant thread of incoming "meteors" which might bombard us at any moment and any place. We have no choice but to completely capitulate!

The years go by, and Russia rules the world — while America cowers within it's borders.

Meanwhile, the Russians enhance their Lunar ability to strike at America by constructing linear accelerators which launch massive targets at any nation on Earth.

By doing it in this manner, Russia never risk destroying the wealth and natural resources of any nation on the planet. They command every nation — while never firing a shot!

It's the ultimate victory of one nation over all the rest!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Let's Create a Sequel!
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~ A Question for the Members: Since the original Heinlein story suggested that the American crew found evidence that another nation had made a lunar landing first, why not create a sequel in which mankind discovers that an alien race has a base on the far side of Moon?

~ Here's what I came up with.: What if all the NASA's flights around the Moon discovered a vast alien complex on the far side?






If all our attempts to communicate with these aliens failed, and we had no idea why they were there or what plans they have for Earth, our government wouldn't dare reveal the existence of these aliens to the world!

Obviously the government would feel compelled to hide their existence from mankind. Revealing this knowledge would result in blind panic and total global chaos . . .

Imagine the terror we would feel when we learned that a highly advanced alien civilization existed just 240,000 miles above the Earth at a secret base on the far side of Moon!





It would be like being told there was burgalar in your house in the middle of the night!

What would mankind do?

Come on, guys! You tell me! Show me what ya got, boys! This is what I created All Sci-Fi for back in 2006 . . . but it hasn't always succeeded as well as I'd hoped for the last eighteen years.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)