(February 23, 2019 at 12:12 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote:(February 23, 2019 at 11:42 am)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: How ever they do it there needs to be a core group that knows you can't just drive a space vehicle over to another one like you would on Earth. The specialists are going to need to be literally rocket scientists.
There are rocket scientists who can design workable rockets and space craft, and then there are “rocket scientists” who can be taught the concepts of how orbital mechanics work and able to use and make sense of the software that does the actual math.
The former is comparable to designers of modern aircraft, warships and even tanks. They are generally in the industry and not in the military. The latter anyone with a 4 year engineering or natural science degree can do, and a good few bright kids who haven’t been through college can also be taught to do.
In practice the personnel of a “space force” need not come close in intelligence and education normally ascribed to spacey things like NASA or ESA. The elite specialists actually in such a force would be bachelors and a few masters. No PhDs required.
Chester Nimitz was the wizard for the USN in the Pacific during WWII. From there it went down to a seaman named Fahey, who knew the boat went with the pointy end first.
