Vulnerability of Space Settlements to Attacks

From: "Ryan Healey"
To:
Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2001 12:29 AM
Subject: Re: [spacesettlers] Vulnerability of Space Settlements to Attacks

[snikt]
> With about 2 metres of radiation shielding that would also function as low
> strength, very thick Armour. Ultimately it depends on the nature of the
> weapon. Chemical explosives aren't going to do much but Nuclear could
wipe out
> a settlement. Kinetic could cause some damage but it would probably be
> survivable.
>

Nukes could wipe out a whole city on Earth itself, so the scale of the
damage is about the same, I think. (Well, not exactly... If a nuke is
detonated at an O'Neil cylinder, then the entire atmosphere will blow away
and everyone dies from decompression in a few minutes. In an Earth-based
city, there would be a lot of survivors that would rather die slowly from
burns, famine and disease.)

[snikt]
Lucio