Relativistic Weapon

A Relativistic Weapon is a mass-device such as an asteroid that is hurled at a planet, accelerating to relativistic, near-FTL speeds.

Description (Specifications)

No information yet available.

History & Background (Dossier)

The reactionless drive postulated in MegaTraveller (Thruster Plates) allows unlimited acceleration times, so long as fuel and power are available. Given this fact, what's to stop players or GMs using asteroids (or small craft such as lifeboats) as relativistic (i.e. near the speed of light) projectiles against unsuspecting worlds? Doesn't this capability give any spacecraft owner access to a weapon of unbelievable power?

Basically, yes. There is no canon reference to this ever having happened, but the physics used in MegaTraveller clearly allows it. Traveller the New Era shied away from this problem by introducing a new, reaction-based drive, HEPlaR (Which, incidentally, has its own problems).

Image Repository

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References & Contributors (Sources)

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• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science