Thus the overall strategy of a space-campaign will somewhat resemble that of the Pacific War, with each party trying to destroy or neutralize the enemy's bases while extending his own. If both have bases on the Moon or Mars there may even be ground campaigns in support of those in the skies. And getting control of one of those erratic asteroids that come within the orbit of Mars will count for ten.
What about armament? In stories of space-warfare that get away from those improbable rays there is usually some kind of hyper-super-duper torpedo, rocket-propelled. But this only demonstrates that the authors of the stories are thinking in Earth-terms instead of space-terms.
It is perfectly plausible to include some torpedoes, probably with atomic warheads, in the armament of a space-ship—something that would knock out an enemy base or destroy a space-battleship at a single blow. But the torpedo will always be what military men call a weapon of opportunity.
They can't be used at all angles—it would be fatally easy for one of them to make a near-miss on the enemy craft and atom-bomb your own Moon base or some part of the Earth you didn't want atom-bombed. Earth's gravitational attraction would pull such a torpedo in from quite a distance out.
There is also the point that on Earth the torpedo is a comparatively short-range weapon, fired from concealment or under conditions where the torpedo-carrier approaches so rapidly it cannot be stopped—by a submarine under-water, by surface ships at night or from behind smoke-screens, by torpedo-planes that attack at ten times the speed of the target-ship.
None of these conditions can be realized in space-warfare. Even if the space-ship were painted black and operating in a planetary shadow (as in some stories) radar would pick it up at a distance at least equaling that from the Earth to the Moon.
And even black coloring would make the space-ship visible as it occluded the practically continuous blanket of stars visible in open space. You can't make a smoke-screen in space—you can make it, but it wouldn't hang and wouldn't be any use against radar if it did. Comparative speeds that would permit the torpedo-plane type of attack are simply unattainable.
Finally naval experience shows that fire is always opened at the greatest possible range where there is any chance of doing damage—and that range is usually maintained in the hope of avoiding hits. Only when one party has been so badly pounded that defeat seems inevitable is there an effort to close the range for torpedo or gunfire.
In space-war, given high visibility and the fact that there will be neither gravity nor air resistance to slow up shells, fire will be opened at extremely long ranges—hundreds of miles. At this distance, a rocket-torpedo, clearly indicating its presence by its trail of fire, will be quite easy to intercept—by shooting smaller rockets or shells with proximity fuses at it.
The time it will take the torpedo to cover the distance is the major factor. And running in to launch a torpedo from close range will be very difficult because of the low speed differential between the two parties and again because of the distance. So it is probable that most space-actions will be fought out with guns.