Pykrete Power!

[Ultimo Tiger]

We already know of the super sized (built by McDonalds?) Aircraft Carrier HMS Habakkuk that there were planes for but I wonder. What other Frankenstein like ideas could we have concocted? And would they have been of any use keeping in mind the limitations of such ships (veeeeeeerrrrrrrryyyyy slow). Could we have overcome such problems?

Just a fun topic for discussion amongst all the doom and gloom of WWIII in Iran and such

[Jack Ray]

I wonder how the Pykrete carrier would have held up as part of Murmansk convoy covering force?

How about as a giant fortified landing craft? Able to land an entire armored division on Utah Beach in one trip!

Jack

[Ultimo Tiger]

That isn't such a bad idea actually. Disgorge a whole tank squadron in one go.

[Jack Ray]

And you could have built-in heavy gun positions to blast the German Atlantic wall at close range. Talk about siege tower!

[JWintjes]

How about as a giant fortified landing craft? Able to land an entire armored division on Utah Beach in one trip!

Actually, the great landing pontoon built for the proposed landings in 1918 was just that - designed to deliver hundreds of men, tanks and artillery and pushed by two 12in monitors.

Jorit

[chuck]

I wonder how the Pykrete carrier would have held up as part of Murmansk convoy covering force?

How about as a giant fortified landing craft? Able to land an entire armored division on Utah Beach in one trip!

Jack

The fact that an iceberg is 95% underwater might make a pykrete landing craft impractical on any beach whose slope doesn't drop vertically to the abyss.

[Ultimo Tiger]

Build a gaint ramp!

[HMAS]

The fact that an iceberg is 95% underwater might make a pykrete landing craft impractical on any beach whose slope doesn't drop vertically to the abyss.

Yes but as the design was symmetrical as opposed to a "normal iceberg" the underwater portion would be comparable to a huge landing craft .
Now, how to stop the troops inside freezing during transit!

[JWintjes]

Now, how to stop the troops inside freezing during transit!

Burning oil drums and Reggae music!



Jorit

[Ultimo Tiger]

Well I see the Pykrete as being a cocoon. So have the innards of ths ship built so they insulate the cavaties of the vessel while stopping that heat getting through into the Pykrete shell. A ship within a ship if you wish.


I wonder how Pykrete would stand up to an Exocet or similar missile?

[Werner]

Interesting that Dyson thought of using a comet as a space ship by using kind of a reverse of this idea.

[chuck]

Interesting that Dyson thought of using a comet as a space ship by using kind of a reverse of this idea.

Except the puffball would probably blow apart when one tries to pressurize the living spaces.

[Werner]

Interesting that Dyson thought of using a comet as a space ship by using kind of a reverse of this idea.

Except the puffball would probably blow apart when one tries to pressurize the living spaces.

I suppose we should ask for his Nobel Prizes back...

[chuck]

Was his Nobel prize in astronomy or spaceship construction? If so, by all means , ask for all of it it back. And then some for this Dyson sphere.

[Werner]

If you had even bothered to read any basic text on Dyson's "sphere", you would know he never called it that. He called it a "habitat". and it was never envisioned as a solid sphere (ala Star Trek), but a cloud of asteroid sized habitats.

Once again your superior wisdom triumphs over the Nobel Committee. Perhaps I could convince you that they have also conferred the award in error to Jimmy Carter, Yassir Arafat and Al Gore.

[chuck]

If you had even bothered to read any basic text on Dyson's "sphere", you would know he never called it that. He called it a "habitat". and it was never envisioned as a solid sphere (ala Star Trek), but a cloud of asteroid sized habitats.

Once again your superior wisdom triumphs over the Nobel Committee. Perhaps I could convince you that they have also conferred the award in error to Jimmy Carter, Yassir Arafat and Al Gore.

No, I don't think the Nobel committee made errors in awarding the prize to any of these people, and they certainly didn't make an error in awarding it to Dyson since they never did award it to Dyson.

[chuck]

If you had even bothered to read any basic text on Dyson's "sphere", you would know he never called it that. He called it a "habitat". and it was never envisioned as a solid sphere (ala Star Trek), but a cloud of asteroid sized habitats.

Once again your superior wisdom triumphs over the Nobel Committee. Perhaps I could convince you that they have also conferred the award in error to Jimmy Carter, Yassir Arafat and Al Gore.

No, I don't think the Nobel committee made errors in awarding the prize to any of these people.

They certainly didn't make an error in awarding it to Dyson since they never did award it to Dyson.

[Werner]

I'll be darned. I had it in my feeble old mind that Dyson had a Nobel in the late 1960s.

So you will leave it with Arafat, Carter and Gore. Good company I'd say.

[Gerarddm]

From Pykrete to bashing poor ol' Jimmy again. How tedious you can be.

But getting back to a semi-thread, the Dyson 'sphere' was brilliantly conceived, but I was taken by the Ringworld concept.

BTW, noted computer guru Esther Dyson is his daughter.

[Werner]

From Pykrete to bashing poor ol' Jimmy again. How tedious you can be.

Seems all I did was mistakenly attribute the Nobel to the worthy Dr. Dyson (who, except for environmental policy has been in your camp far longer than mine). Dyson suggested a comet could be hollowed out and used as a space vehicle in a way not too different to our "Pykrete landing ship". I was corrected by a certain someone who said Dr. Dyson was not worthy of the award, so I apologized, and as a backslap reminded that person that perhaps the Nobel is not worth it in any event based on the fact that it had been awarded to two of these three people in one event for bringing peace to the Middle East, and in the other for making a Powerpoint presentation on a very difficult to prove thesis.

BTW, noted computer guru Esther Dyson is his daughter.

Being unfamiliar with her area of work, perhaps you could elaborate....