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From: adolph@ssc-vax.UUCP (Mark Adolph)
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Re: Photon torpedoes
Message-ID: <33@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 8-Jul-85 21:45:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: ssc-vax.33
Posted: Mon Jul  8 21:45:19 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jul-85 10:52:27 EDT
References: <812@rayssd.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Boeing Aerospace Co., Seattle, WA
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> Why don't they have some sort of guidance system like a
> missile instead of a straight line trajectory?  

According to the novelization of STII:WOK, photon torpedoes DO have a
guidance system.  If I'm not mistaken, Saavik is the one who changed the
programming on Spock's tube so that it would soft land instead of burning
up in Genesis' atmosphere.  If Robin Curtiss had talked to Kirstie Alley
before she attempted to masquerade as Saavik, she wouldn't have been so
surprised in STIII.  8-)

On a more general note, locking on to a target does not imply straight
line flight.  It only implies that the ship has to uniquely identify the 
target to the missile before launching it.

					-- Mark A.
					...{uw-beaver|fluke}!ssc-vax!adolph

	"1 + 1 = 1, for sufficiently small values of 1..."