I love the totally illogical idea of self-destruction in space travel.
Like we don’t have self-destruct bombs on ships or planes or research stations on earth (I’m sure there’s an exception or two, but they prove the point), why the fuck would we have them in space, which is a much more fragile environment to exist within…?
Computer shutdown procedures sure, but what possible use is a bomb that’s made to blow up your own vessel? Just so silly.
Most of the time it seems like it’s not a bomb, but triggering some kind of uncontrolled meltdown of a reactor that’s powering the vessel, or maybe blowing up the fuel.
In some cases sure, but even then, like… why is that so easy to do? And why are there countdowns? And why can it be intentionally triggered? That’s the real weird one. None of those things are even remotely realistic. There should be layers upon layers of safeguards to prevent the super expensive ship that took years to build from blowing up.
I mean we already have auto-shutdown processes for all sorts of explody and dangerous energy sources on earth; we even have auto-shutdown processes to prevent damage to the generator/facility. I’d assume those used to power ships would be among the safest, especially if we’ve made it to real manned exploration technology.
Warships absolutely have a “self destruct button” it’s called scuttling. Done to deny the enemy the capture of the ships, or to lodge a wreck in an important location, so it blocks passage. Usually a “self destruct” is ships scuttling, but for space - you can’t really do anything to a spaceship to “disable” it and prevent it from ever being used, unless you blow it to bits. Also, explosions are cool.
Same thing for abandonned tanks - burning those is often done - especially if you just lost a track, and the tank is fully operational but cannot move. If you have no chance of retrieving the vehicle, it’s better to burn it than to deny the enemy the knowledge about its system, weakpoints, comms etc.
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I love the totally illogical idea of self-destruction in space travel.
Like we don’t have self-destruct bombs on ships or planes or research stations on earth (I’m sure there’s an exception or two, but they prove the point), why the fuck would we have them in space, which is a much more fragile environment to exist within…?
Computer shutdown procedures sure, but what possible use is a bomb that’s made to blow up your own vessel? Just so silly.
We have them in missiles. Oh, and on civilian rockets too.
We put them on things that are dangerous and must be stopped is something goes wrong.
Most of the time it seems like it’s not a bomb, but triggering some kind of uncontrolled meltdown of a reactor that’s powering the vessel, or maybe blowing up the fuel.
In some cases sure, but even then, like… why is that so easy to do? And why are there countdowns? And why can it be intentionally triggered? That’s the real weird one. None of those things are even remotely realistic. There should be layers upon layers of safeguards to prevent the super expensive ship that took years to build from blowing up.
I mean we already have auto-shutdown processes for all sorts of explody and dangerous energy sources on earth; we even have auto-shutdown processes to prevent damage to the generator/facility. I’d assume those used to power ships would be among the safest, especially if we’ve made it to real manned exploration technology.
Warships absolutely have a “self destruct button” it’s called scuttling. Done to deny the enemy the capture of the ships, or to lodge a wreck in an important location, so it blocks passage. Usually a “self destruct” is ships scuttling, but for space - you can’t really do anything to a spaceship to “disable” it and prevent it from ever being used, unless you blow it to bits. Also, explosions are cool.
Same thing for abandonned tanks - burning those is often done - especially if you just lost a track, and the tank is fully operational but cannot move. If you have no chance of retrieving the vehicle, it’s better to burn it than to deny the enemy the knowledge about its system, weakpoints, comms etc.