Maneuver (flying)

The following requires advanced astronavigation, sophisticated computer and sensor technology. The following are most applicable for low technology civilizations where kinetic energy maneuver considerations are still vital and Einstein's general-relativity still a factor.

Flying a Maneuver is an elaborated movement as compared to a "straight" or simple move. It can refer to a tactical move or to a strategic move.

Background

There is no up or down in space, hence, traditional maneuvering is not restricted to any direction. A maneuver can be executed in any direction there is no need to bank a ship like aircrafts do. The only reason to bank a ship is to reduce the inertia or g-forces on the crew. This does not apply to ships with gravity control or inertia technology.

While aircraft make use of gravity and air for energy control (John Boyd: E-theory) and fuel spaceships don't always have such luxury. A spaceship can use gravity to slingshot or swing-by, but this time and space excessive action is useless for normal combat. The opportunity to use gravity for energy conversion is very limited in combat. Bussard ram-scooping is possible but there is usually not enough atoms around in vacuum. Mining a nebular or a gas planet is possible but not necessary during combat. A spaceship has to carry all the fuel and provide the accelerating power itself.

Three-dimensional thinking and orientation, understanding and calculating vectors are the basic skill a spaceship pilot must have. In combat a ship will often glide, turn and accelerate with a different vector. Vector additions are a must to get new vector. Even though spaceships have inertia navigation systems (INS) and computers these are sensitive and may fail. A pilot needs to keep track of all the ships movement. These tasks put a lot of strain on human minds. This is one reason the Abh were created with a spatial-organ. The Abh have an advantage with their spatial-organ which allows them not only to orient spatially but also process sensor data directly. A normal human can never steer a ship as fast and well as an Abh.

Reaction Control System

The greatest advantage of spaceships is the availability of Reaction Control System (RCS). Without RCS an aircraft needs to use lift forces to turn which takes time and is restricted based on altitude but a spaceship can rotate around virtually instantly with RCS. There's is no need for flying maneuvers in order to get into position for a shot as aircrafts must do. Instead flying a maneuver is usually used to change movement vector or to reduce hit probability. Of course getting into range, and perhaps having a clear line of fire is still a required task.

The downside is that large ships need powerful RCS for fast rotates. For efficiency reason RCS will most likely be partially replaced or augmented by vectored propulsion. Vectored propulsion is mechanically complicated and prone to fail or have increased maintenance. Advanced propulsion will likely have bi-directional propulsion system without mechanic mechanism e.g. for acceleration and breaking?.

The RCS is not restricted for steering only, it can be used for lateral movement (to strafe) or drift the spaceship sideways.

Rotating a spaceship is the most basic means to steer a spaceship. The real skill of a spaceship pilot lies in rotating on all axis at once while keeping track of the ships movement. He has to be able to keep a certain face toward the target in order to allow the use of certain arc limited weapons.

Maneuvers

For space flight maneuvers refer to Normal Space Navigation. When combining rotation with main thrust the resulting movement vector gives a flight path similar to traditional maneuver flying. Without gravity and air resistance sudden maneuvers like the cobra cannot be done nor are they visually executed in the same way. Most spaceship maneuvers are barrel roll types known with traditional flying. However, in order to execute them a spaceship will use it's main propulsion mostly for accelerating or breaking while the RCS does the real maneuvering or rather the rotation and strafing.

Coasting

In space inertia can carry a ship further in the direction it is moving even if proulsion has been turned off. A ship can coast while turning toward a target and engage it. The bearing of a ship is not necessarily the direction it is moving.

Slingshot

Unlike a traditional aircraft spaceships are large and need to carry all the fuel they need, hence, maneuvers like "tossing" a weapon are too expensive to be used under normal circumstances.

However, a similar move can be done using a gravitational slingshot with little to no energy cost. A gravitational slingshot can change the spacecraft's velocity by up to twice the planet's velocity, hence, allowing the spaceship to build up speed for the egress. Any other orbiting movements can be used for a tangential release but without extra egress speedup.

Stealth

Stealth is not as useful in normal space as it is in plane space. In normal space a ship's energy signature is very far reaching compared to weapons range. Running complete silent is possible but requires time on a scale too large to cover the distances necessary to be tactically feasible.

The slingshot offers a limited time window in which the ship disappears from view and can conduct a course change for a surprise attack. The conditions and requirements, however, are difficult to meet. A ship has to be designed for optical stealth and being able to cool in a short time instead of days or weeks. Once the ship has come out of the slingshot it must run silent until the weapons release point. This limits possible flight paths, hence, limits target points in reach.

See Also

• Maneuver (orbit)
• Spaceship performance (normal space)