Is space piracy orbitally practical?
I'm considering a story set about fifty years (2065) in the future. It takes a rather optimistic view; space exploration has led to colonies on the Moon and Mars, as well as several space stations orbiting Venus for scientific purposes. There are currently several exploratory missions planned or in progress for the Jovian and Saturnian moons.
The main form of travel is still chemical rockets, regrettably, although ion engines have recently become fashionable since larger quantities of thrust were achieved in 2058. We can get from Earth to the Moon in two days and Venus or Mars in three months (suspend your disbelief). The majority of travel takes place using the following method:
- Small single-stage-to-orbit reusable shuttles are taken from the planet/moon to a space station complex in orbit
- Larger ships propelled by boosters then go to space stations at the next destination, where more shuttles take the crew and/or cargo to the surface.
Piracy is now back in style, despite many attempts to stop it using shielding and even onboard weapons on the interplanetary ships. My story in particular focuses on one particular group of pirates focusing on the Earth-Mars run.
However, I need to know if this is at all practical. Piracy in space is harder than piracy on the seas because orbital trajectories are, I'm guessing, much harder to change, and fuel is limited in the smaller, compact ships pirates typically use. This one uses an experimental ion engine, with enough energy to get from Earth to Mars and back.
From an orbital perspective, and taking the limited fuel reserves into account, is piracy in space feasible? If it is, where in the trade routes is the easiest attacking point - closer to the planets, where the pirates still have plenty of fuel, or out in the middle of space, where there are no other ships to stop them?
Kys pointed out in a comment that it might be better to switch propulsion systems - that is, have the pirate crafts use chemical rockets to make sharper maneuvers possible, while the large freighters use ion engines that they use to slowly accelerate. I'll probably go with that in my final story, but I don't want to change the premise; that would invalidate at least one answer given already. Any future answers should still assume that the large ships use chemical rockets.
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