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The hydrogen peroxide-fueled two-stage turbine engine will replace the standard Maybach unit for power, although the system is electric rather than IC.
I am not a chemist, but I accept hydrogen peroxide turbines as plausible engines for your space Tiger. Hydrogen peroxide is often cited as a possible alternative fuel here on Earth. However, I believe it is considered intolerant of heat and shock in high concentration, something to consider when designing a tank.
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The crew compartment could be pressurized, but this is quite dangerous in combat so all crew members will wear pressurized suits which will feed into an internal oxygen supply system.
Space suits are fine, but unless the space Tiger is limited to short missions they will need facilities to eat and manage waste. I do not see this as a major issue, just another set of gizmos that have to fit inside the tank somewhere.
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For external use the suits will have a limited personal oxygen supply and I posit that the moon will have an abundant supply of buried oxygen supply bunkers to allow the crew to make their way back to base.
The Russians destroyed all those after implementing their scorched moon policy. Better have a plan B.
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Smoke launchers could be chemical rather than combustive.
As pointed out by Aaron above, I was incorrect in my statement that the guns and smoke launchers need oxygen to work. So one less problem for space Tiger!
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All weapons will need to be replaced but magnetic linear accelerators (rail guns), lasers and similar weapons all need a huge electrical supply so I may have to dip into pure science-fiction to come up with a replacement for the weapons. Maybe rapid microwave dischargers or some form or micro-particle discharger...
Actually, chemical explosive weapons will work just fine in an oxygen free environment, and are very efficient. You just need a self contained chemical explosive. Rail guns and coil guns both require way more power than hydrogen peroxide engines can realistically generate. The good news is that space Tiger can utilize low temperature superconductors rather easily! Lasers are somewhat problematic. They require lots of energy and would work rather poorly against tanks designed to fend off raw solar radiation. I still think a plain old chemical explosive gun is the way to go.
When you say "pure science fiction" you mean "science fantasy". I am engaging the topic as science fiction--conjecturing about technologies that could work by extrapolating from existing technologies and ideas. Science fantasy is just making stuff up and slapping scientific sounding names on it. Don't give up so quickly!
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The German moon base has always been assumed to have been located on the dark side of the moon but this means that whatever the crew suits are made of must have high levels of thermal protection. Again, science fiction may be the only answer.
The "dark side of the moon" is just the side that faces away from Earth all the time. (For those who do not know, the moon is tidally locked and always presents the same face to the Earth.) It has a normal day and night cycle just like the side that faces Earth.
I recommend only resorting to science fantasy if you absolutely must (as in the case of faster than light drives). The LEM could handle day and night on the moon, so can space Tiger!
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With new engines and less strain on the running gear the Tiger may last a bit longer than its earth counterpart.
That depends on how many space Thunderbolts and space Mustangs space Tiger must content with. Fortunately, space Shermans are notoriously under-gunned.
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Combustive projectile weapons may be a moot point as stated above, but the Germans had very advanced sighting technology during world-war 2 so this will continue to be used in the LTO. Early computer technology may be able to deal with sighting problems caused by the curvature of the moons surface.
I disagree, but that's all part of the game! I do not see curvature being a problem since tanks use their weapons in direct fire mode 99% of the time. The sights need to compensate for the lower gravity and lack of air resistance, and see targets further out, but the tank will always see the target when used like a tank. Indirect fire weapons have to deal with the curvature problem.
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Indeed. Maybe tires, maybe legs…
Tracks should do just fine on the moon. Tires would work fine too, but Tigers have tracks. This armored vehicle with legs thing--it vexes me. Let's take spider Tiger up further in this thread. With all those legs it weighs more than a regular Tiger, and then concentrates all that weight on those 8 tiny points, giving it a ground pressure of what, 10000 tons per square foot? The first time it takes a step, it will ram those legs into the ground like 8 pick axes driven by pile drivers and never extract itself. Even if you put big floppy feet at the end of each leg to keep the ground pressure down, it will still move slower than anything else on the battlefield. And since it stands about 25 feet tall, it stands out above every other thing on the battlefield. I'll take the regular Tiger, thank you very much. And where the heck does the turret crew fit with those side by side 88s jammed in there? I feel really sorry for a loader having to serve two 88s even if they did fit! I think a walking tank could work, and might even have application in mountains or very broken terrain, but that spider Tiger is not it.
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Lunar allied assault troops?
Definitely mechanized infantry. I do not see anyone slogging it on foot for any length of time in that environment, unless the technology is really advanced.
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This is exactly the kind of questions that I needed to work things out in my brain. Thank you.
My intent is to offer ideas and stimulate thought on the topic, not advocate a particular position or design approach. However, I do encourage you to extrapolate from real technologies and avoid science fantasy whenever possible, as it is usually just an excuse for muddled, shoddy thinking (unless used as a stage for social commentary, which does not apply in this case). Anyway, I hope my musings help with your project. I am also working on some scratch built armor models in this theme, so I think about it rather often.
-Doug
