Lunar Space Weapon: Realistic

>>8593598
Missiles, dude...

missiles.

>>8593598
>mathematically superior
>planetary to orbital
Explain please

>>8593631
Well, suppose you're on the moon, and you have a hostile fleet inbound. Which one of these is economically superior, and simultaneously more effective based on the fact that this is the moon. before you ask, there is a sizable colony reaching to about 20 million

>>8593598
'Lasers' are meme-tier regardless.

And also boring, as you couldn't see them.

>>8593681
Indeed

>>8593678
If they use a mass driver to get payloads into orbit then they could probably just fill one up with chaff, aim it at the opposing fleet, and fuck them right up. And if they really wanted a Pyrrhic victory they could intentionally trigger the kessler effect.

>>8593598
>what kind of weapon would go on the moon and mathematically be superior to other forms
three words:
giant
fucking
mirrors

think the deathray of Archimedes but on a far grander scale

>>8593681
>as you couldn't see them.

Surely you could use augmented reality techniques to make the beams visible? like VR goggles with video passthrough so you can see normally, but also sensors for whatever wavelength you expect the enemies lasers to be using.

So you can see the laser beams and also avoid being blinded by at/near them (won't help if you take a laser to your face but better than nothing). And you could also integrate other stuff into the AR e.g. friendly and suspected enemy unit locations, ammo readout on HUD, etc.

>>8593785
if your sensors can detect the laser it means your sensors are being hit by the laser
if you're wearing the sensors that means you're being hit by the laser
you will probably burn up before your fancy HUD has a chance to help you

>>8593785 this: >>8593787.
Also, why?

Weapons are designed for efficiency, why employ weaponry that would require so much extra technology to be visible (so you don't friendly fire in combat).

Especially when you already have better weapons as mentioned in the OP.

>>8593799
Lasers are collimated, basically all of their light goes in one direction. The reason we can (sometimes) see them in air is because it's hitting molecules in the atmosphere and scattering off all over the place. In a vacuum there's nothing to cause that.

And what makes you think being able to see them would reduce friendly fire? You can't see bullets. Before you mention tracers, those exist for other reasons (directing fire of other assets, improving follow-on shot aim etc.)

>>8593787
You could program the laser aiming mechanism to send information to allied vr goggles to simply simulate when and where the lasers are firing.

Still pointless, but it'd work.