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sid_galt
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Can a system of lasers be built which has the ability to deliver a vast amount of energy on a small spot on Earth making it a possible effective substitute of the nuclear bomb?
OK.russ_watters said:Certainly not, unless you could power a laser or energy beam with a nuclear bomb (ie, a focused emp or something like that). A nuclear bomb outputs more energy than everything else on Earth combined at the time it goes off.
russ_watters said:In any case, that's not what Star Wars is: its an anti-ballistic missile defense.
Yes, a prototype of a daughter technolgoy, the Airborne Laser is being built right now. http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/abl/flash.htmlsid_galt said:Well, can that be done?
russ_watters said:Yes, a prototype of a daughter technolgoy, the Airborne Laser is being built right now. http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/abl/flash.html
So far, it is successful. Do you mean why hasn't it been done before? There are a mountain of technical hurles to overcome (now mostly overcome). Targeting is one, laser power output is another, and beam coherence (when you heat the air it gets turbulent and disperses the beam) is another.sid_galt said:Thank you. So why isn't it succesful?
Difficulty in targeting? Can't they use a little spread out beam with a higher amplitude so that they don't have to be so accurate with their aim?
According to Richard Garwin, the SDI's pop-up infrared laser was to be powered by an exploding fission device. This is not to imply that all of the fission energy would be transferred through the laser beam.russ_watters said:Certainly not, unless you could power a laser or energy beam with a nuclear bomb
I didn't know that. I did know its possible (in theory) to direct the energy from a nuclear bomb - Tom Clancy described a similar phenomena in The Sum of all Fears, where a vaporizing TV dish (in an atomic bomb blast) emitted a focused-emp that knocked out the satellite it was aimed at.hitssquad said:According to Richard Garwin, the SDI's pop-up infrared laser was to be powered by an exploding fission device. This is not to imply that all of the fission energy would be transferred through the laser beam.
Oops. That seems correct. It must indeed have been an X-ray laser. I read about it 20 years ago in Garwin's The Fallacy of Star Wars and have not brushed up on that issue since then.russ_watters said:[Google...] A few sites mention a nuclear x-ray laser
sid_galt said:Thank you. So why isn't it succesful?
Difficulty in targeting? Can't they use a little spread out beam with a higher amplitude so that they don't have to be so accurate with their aim?
Lasers have been featured in the Star Wars franchise as powerful weapons capable of destroying large targets. They are often depicted as being more precise and controllable than nuclear bombs, making them a viable alternative in combat scenarios.
While both lasers and nuclear bombs can cause significant destruction, the amount of energy released by a nuclear bomb is far greater than that of a laser. Nuclear bombs release energy through nuclear fission or fusion reactions, while lasers use focused light to generate heat and destroy targets.
Lasers are often portrayed as being a cleaner and more environmentally friendly alternative to nuclear bombs, as they do not leave behind radioactive fallout. However, the production and use of high-powered lasers also have the potential to harm the environment, and their impact on the atmosphere is still being studied.
In the Star Wars universe, lasers are portrayed as being powerful and effective weapons, but they also have their limitations. For instance, they can be deflected or blocked by certain materials or objects, and their effectiveness can be reduced by atmospheric conditions or jamming technology.
While the use of lasers as weapons is a possibility, it is unlikely that they will completely replace nuclear bombs in the near future. Nuclear weapons have a long history of being used as a deterrent and a means of defense, and their destructive power is unmatched by any other weapon technology.