ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Thinking Outside the "Plot"!
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~ A Question for the Members: After London was devastated by the space vampires and thousands of Brits were killed, would mankind initiate a global effort to create one-or-more mega-missiles which could overtake and destroy the alien ship after it reentered the coma of Halley's Comet?

~ My Theory: Well, they certainly should, in view of the danger the vampires pose — and we'd probably try . . . in spite of the extreme challenges this would present.

For example, the ship is 150 miles long and built by an advance race of beings. Destroying such a large vessel made of unknown materials (and now repopulated by a large crew of revitalized demonic creatures) might be more than we can manage with our current technology.

And then there's the problem of catching up to the damn thing after it's rounded the sun and headed back towards deep space!

Let's assume that it takes only one year to complete a fleet of mega-missiles and launch them.

When Haley's Comet goes past the Earth (during both it's final approach towards the sun and the early part of its return trip), it's velocity is 157,838 mph.

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Shown above ~ The orbital path of Halley, against the orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune (animation)

According the animations above, Hally's comet takes about six months to cross Earth's orbit the second time before heading back into space.

That means it will be traveling about 3,788,112 miles each day during the six months after crossing Earth's orbit the second time and racing away from Earth!

And six months after crossing Earth's orbit — when Earth's mega-missiles are finally ready to launch — the vampire ship will be about 681,860,160 miles away . . . and still going like a bat outta hell!

Obviously mankind doesn't have a chance in hell of catching up with these soul-sucking bastards and blowing them up!

Therefore, mankind's best chance to deal with these evil creatures is to spend the next 76 years getting ready to nuke the bastards when Haley's comet comes back!

Come on, guys! Figuring out stuff like this takes a few hours and some serious online research, but isn't that what science fiction fans are supposed to love doing!

Heck, I do! I hope I'm not the only one!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Morbius]

Could we put a Nuke in the same comet orbit but going the opposite way to meet the comet long before it reaches Earth?

[Bud Brewster]

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Morbius, that's good thinking!

Your suggestioin is definitely the best option — although the situation would seem to require more than one nuke because of the size of the ship and the unknown material it's made of.

And it would be risky to put the nukes in a solar orbit and expect them to be in exactly the right place if they were there too long before the vampire ship returned.

I'd suggest that by the time Hally's Comet returns in 76 years we could have a spacecraft ready to rendezvous with the approaching ship. The Earth ship would be armed with multiple missiles that could be fired at the alien craft — either while it approached, or as it passed, or perhaps after the Earth ship's planned flight path placed it behind the alien ship.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)