Joseph Shoer, a Ph.D. candidate in aerospace engineering, explains how modular spacecraft might be assembled, hoping they will be the telescopes and human exploration vehicles of the future, and not used for crushing the dreams of Martian colonists.

I had a discussion recently with friends about the various depictions of space combat in science fiction movies, TV shows, and books. We have the fighter-plane engagements of Star Wars, the subdued, two-dimensional naval combat in Star Trek, the Newtonian planes of Battlestar Galactica, the staggeringly furious energy exchanges of the combat wasps in Peter Hamilton’s books, and the use of antimatter rocket engines themselves as weapons in other sci-fi. But suppose we get out there, go terraform Mars, and the Martian colonists actually revolt. Or suppose we encounter hostile aliens. How would space combat actually go?

Read on here, at Gizmodo. Thanks to my scientist brother for sending the link in for E-Verse readers.