I was actually thinking about real life, as fighting in space develops as a real thing. That if you’re going to fight in space, up until “shields up” is an actual thing, a bag of gravel will do ya!
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Or it could be used in shows like “The Expanse”. But releasing it around our planet would create a disaster area. Like a space minefield.
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That gravel is going to keep going at the same velocity as your ship, though. Unless you accelerate away from it and the ship chasing you follows suit, you’re just going to have that gravel hanging around in your proximity.
Whatever you do, don’t decelerate!
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Good point about the acceleration. Dammit Jim, I’m a history major, not a physicist.
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In Uplift Wars, David Brin has one of the Terran ships (crewed by uplifted dolphins) eject a large chunk of their water supply in the path of a pursuing vessel, which froze pretty much instantly. Shields or no shields, that’s gonna hurt.
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Conveniently for gravel based defense systems, constant acceleration might be a feasible method of space travel (Thats what they do in the Expanse to generate gravity. Accelerate until the halfway point then decelerate until you get there.).
In that case you just need to be far enough in front of the opponent, and on the first half of your trip, but not too close to the half way point. So maybe not ideal, but there is a window where it could work 
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Are you suggesting constant acceleration by ejecting rocks out the back of your ship? Flintstones do space travel!
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Likewise, in the second half, the chasing ship can turn the tables and toss gravel at you from behind.
No, Freddy Drive technology involves constant oversized-foot based acceleration.
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Meanwhile, in the Traveller universe…
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True, but heels are worse :
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Por qué no te callas!
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In real life gravel has an incredible weight that you have to lift into orbit. Until we have asteroid mining a laser which works off the craft’s solar cells or nuclear reactor is much more efficient and reusable.
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In “Madness Has Its Place”, by Larry Niven, a group of rogue individuals set a series of boobtraps booby traps around the asteroid belt. It would teach these pesky aliens a lesson.
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Unless someone comes up with a reactionless drive mechanism of some sort all your options for acceleration are uncomfortably close to just being slight engineering optimizations of exactly that.
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Gotta nip those aliens in the bud. The weapons could be on the antipode and adipose sides.
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I guess if you are already up, and can cannibalize a handy asteroid for reaction mass, it could work. The exhaust would be rough, though!
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I have a feeling Birkenstock will soon be heard from. Footwear weaponization is not in their mission statement.
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Oh. I have to correct my post, or the Standards and Practice Department will send me an email anytime.
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