On Fri, May 2, 2014 at 9:27 AM, Kurt Feltenberger <kurt@thepaw.org> wrote:
> On 5/2/2014 1:05 AM, Tim wrote:

>
> The weapons range from something the length of a Hellfire missile to a
> missile with a diameter of about five meters with multiple warheads so
> there's a wide range of mayhem available to smite with.
>
>

Hellfire is 17.3cm dia by 163cm long.
Hmmm...
Ya know, if you were to mount an FGMP's "working parts" in a tube, and
run it at "low power" mode, it could fake being an HEPLAR. Then, when
it reaches target, it'd drain some capacitors to put much more power
to the coils that make the magnetic field that controls the plasma,
and thus initiate fusion.

Issues with power consumption during the plasma burn, but you could
probably come up with a pulsed mode, where it'd run in plasma for a
while, until one set of caps were low, then do a tiny fusion pulse
that releases a bunch of energy that the thing captures and recharges
the caps.

Or go simpler, and have it run in pulse mode the whole time, kinda of
"Orion-ish" , making fusion packets that decay and erupt inside a
thrust chamber.
...until it reaches target, at which time it uses all remaining fuel
and power to make one big boom.

I could see a 20cm dia x 100cm "package" that has a screw-on 20x40cm
fuel tank, and then a 20x10 'sensor package" on the front. The sensor
package would vent the LH2 in the fuel tank out side-mounted jets to
steer, in between thrust pulses.

Bigger "medium sized" missiles (like a 1 could be groups of the
'standard' 20cm dia x 150cm screwed into a larger assembly, until it
becomes cost effective to make a larger module design (ICBM size)

I could see the "medium size" one being something like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M982_Excalibur
Picture five of the 20cm dia modules in the back, (square plus center)
and it uses the pulse rate on each one to steer.