UNSC Ships Should End Planets | Lore and Theory

In this episode: We discuss the physics at work that leads to UNSC Ships of practically every class, having the tonnage and velocity to be able to be used to destroy entire colonies.

SUPPORT THE CHANNEL!

GET CONNECTED!

[ShagShaggio]

Honestly this helps puts into perspective why ONI and the higher ups in the UNSC were so concerned about the insurrection and the conflict around them becoming potentially destructive for humanity. When you take into consideration that simply influencing one captain with a moderate sized ship is a very real danger to every colonized planet, makes the paranoia a little more understandable.

[mr.heroic]

Let’s not forget about how one overheated reactor from a Halcyon-class cruiser, Pillar of Autumn, was able to rip apart Alpha Halo. Imagine that kind of destruction on a planet or even a moon…

[tobiasnivalis]

In the words of Isaac Arthur, "There is no such thing as an unarmed spaceship." As far as the unlimited acceleration, the thing is that space is not a true vacuum. There are gas molecules and dust, albeit thinly spread. And while the Titanium A battle plate is tough as they get their speed up, each mote of dust will be hitting the force of a MAC round. And with their flat fronts, the force wouldn't be deflected instead going straight into the superstructure.

[andrew]

"the ships don't have a reverse" (shows diagrams of the ships with double sided engines for reverse thrust)

[OniLink]

It's worth noting that the Marathon in that cutacene was likely traveling at whatever its equivalent of no-wake speed is considering how close to the Cairo it was operating. When it is in open space and doesn't have to worry about collisions, its velocity is much higher.

As for the "reverse gear", I imagine interplanetary flight looks something like the Expanse with the ship flipping its orientation and performing a reverse burn to slow back down for planetfall.

[matthewdarwin]

During the battle of reach, the autumn from the fall of reach book, Cortana made a full 180 at max thrust to fight the covenant carrier thru an asteroid field. It's scary how she was able to maneuver the autumn thru it.

[NovoCognition]

Assuming a UNSC ship could constantly accelerate at 10gs it'd take a little over a week to reach a quarter the speed of light, comparable to the Infinity's MACs, & a little under a day at 100gs. However, given that UNSC sensor tech & infrastructure is advance enough to make system wide detections at the speed of light with good old radio, & given there really isn't much Human activity beyond the heliopause of stars, any such vessel would likely be blown up by MACs, lasers, & missiles before they had the chance to hit a planet.

[Sypitz]

PILLAR OF AUTUMN’S ENGINES? IN ATMOSPHERE?!

[andrewbutton]

It's fortunate that the UNSC don't actually want to obliterate planets.

[viddarkking]

Another overlooked point about UNSC engines is that MACs by their very nature are more powerful and have longer range (remember in space range means time before enemy has the ability to dodge) the faster the ship is going.
So an UNSC Fleet pulling as many Gs of acceleration as the "inertial compensators" can manage to avoid turning the crew into paste. From the edge of the system to the planet would add more than enough kinetic energy to each and every one of their MAC rounds to be a guaranteed kill on any Covenant ship well before the Covenant energy weapons had the range to fire back.

[LDSG_A_Team]

Yeah and keep in mind these are all EXTREMELY conservative estimates. Based on context in the books, it sounds a whole lot more like a UNSC ship can go between Earth and Mars in a matter of HOURS, not days

[Tipsyweeb]

I get feeling that alot of the limiting factors on speed include safety margins and strength of the super structure and of course the squishy flesh bags inside are really sensitive to changes in direction at speed so it's probably best to keep them at a peaceful jaunt

[carldooley]

Considering that the construction of the ships has the engines at the stern (back) and not the stern(bottom) like the Expanse starships has me thinking that the UNSC is fully capable of grav drives and gravity control. The reason why no one worries about the destruction of planets from relativistic ships is that habitable planets are relatively rare, and no one in their right minds would actually do so.

[The-Autistic-Strategist]

10:15 not to mention that she is overcoming wind resistance with a not so aerodynamic design.
Just imagine that acceleration in vacuum.

[scottc]

At 10:46 you say that In Amber Clad is traveling 9, 560 m/s, or basically Mach 28. Wild to consider giving the heating and aerodynamic issues today's aircraft experience at hypersonic speeds, like Mach 4-6. Going back to the anniversary cutscene, prior to accelerating to catch up to Solemn Penance, In Amber clad was going its length every 4 or so seconds (the bit in the cutscene where Miranda says "Not if we can help it Sargeant"), so about 125 m/s. Assuming the cutscene happens in real time, it takes In Amber Clad goes from 125 m/s to 9, 560 m/s in 20 seconds, subjecting the ship (and its occupants) to over 900 G of acceleration. I can't fathom a ship (or a crew) that could survive either of these conditions.

Great video

[inductivegrunt]

With all the nukes on board each of the ships, alongside the other armaments like MACS, they could destroy planets. But engines? Now that is an interesting weapon the UNSC have. Imagine UNSC ships just flying straight through a planet's atmosphere just to basically nuke everything is passes over.

[paintrane]

Thank you for this! MAC rounds are planet-killers based on the kinetics alone. I love your content!

[KantoKait]

09:00 the marathon is also weaving arround Cairo, and other ships. This would mean that the speed may be slow, but stable and controlled. Like a residential speed.

[amdkillaplays]

So it wasnt the slip space jump that tore up Mombasa and the space elevator, it was the supersonic shockwave of the In Amber Clad 😂

[psps]

Reminds me of the Unlimited-Speed mod in Space Engineers.
So focused on getting there thought on how to decelerate in time to not slam into the destination until it was too late