It's been talked to death why space fighters are impractical but let's say the stupid rich dictator of the third world asteroid colony is dead set on having his fighter jets in space. What would a "realistic" space fighter look like? What do you have to consider about space as a medium?
>>64760301Not just being a jet plane in space for starters I guess.Its a totally different environment, lack of gravity and needing to worry about radiating heat and the other rigors of the space environment.
>>64760301>fighters Are actually very practical, especially as drones.
>>64760301>realistic "fighter"A drone swarm control ship. The drones would have a bunch of missiles.>designate targets>upload to swarm>GTFO and let drones do their thingThat's what space fighters are going to be. A human telling a prelaunched and standby drone swarm to wake up, lock onto something, and do their job. They don't even need to look like atmospheric drones. You can pack missiles, terminal guidance, and reaction thrusters in a cylinder and have it sitting there in sleep mode with either a RTG or solar backup to keep it awake enough to receive a signal for years. Just launch a few more every so often to account for natural attrition.>but we want dogfights in spaceNever going to happen. Individual fighter craft engaging each other is ridiculous at exoatmospheric distances. It's going to be Macross missile spam forever.
>>64760503Couldn't fighters just participate in the missile spam instead of dogfighting?
