Re: The Age of Fighting Sail in S P A C E !!

On 11/24/2024 12:02 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

On 11/21/2024 10:06 AM, Cryptoengineer wrote:

On 11/20/2024 1:05 PM, Robert Woodward wrote:

Am I referring to David Weber's Honor Harrington series where the
characteristics of the space drive cause warships to fight broadside to
broadside? No. Am I referring to David Drake's Leary and Mundy series
where the FTL drive uses "sails"? No.
>
I am referring to _Arabella and the Battle of Venus_ by David Levine
which is the 2nd book in his Arabella series*. This takes place in a
very strange solar system where breathable atmosphere exists in
interplanetary space. So we have 2 fleets of large c. 1800 sailing ships
(with 2 extra sets of masts set 120 degrees from the vertical ones) in
space shooting at each other with muzzle loading black powder cannon.
BTW, the commander of the British fleet is Admiral Horatio Nelson.
>
*Both "The Wreck of the Mars Adventure" which appeared in the anthology
_Old Mars_ and "The End of the Silk Road" which appeared in the May-June
2014 issue of _F&SF_ belong to the same continuity. David Levine has
stated that "tEotSR" was written for _Old Venus_ but was not accepted
there.
>

>
That's a wild scenario. Did they address the issue of wind resistance
causing planets to slow down and spiral into the sun?
>

The air doesn't just move along at the same speed as the planets?  If not I don't want to even try to imagine the turbulence....

There's a conflict.
Things in orbit take longer to complete an orbit the farther they
are from the Sun. This means that the atmospheric gasses would
have to be traveling at different velocities at different distances
from the Sun.
That leads to turbulence all on its own, as adjacent layers of
gas interact. Turbulence leads to loss of energy, and a collapse
towards the Sun.
The only way to prevent it would be for the gas cloud to rotate
as if it were a solid object, with the highest speeds at the outer
edge, and the planets embedded in the cloud like raisins.
But that would mean that beyond a certain point, the gas molecules
would exceed solar escape velocity, and be lost. Also, objects in
orbits just don't act that way,
pt