Star Wars Potential: Can Lasers Replace Nuclear Bombs?

Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the feasibility of using laser systems as potential substitutes for nuclear bombs, particularly in the context of military applications and defense technologies. Participants explore theoretical and practical aspects of laser technology, including its energy output, targeting challenges, and historical references to related concepts.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Technical explanation
  • Exploratory

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions whether a laser system could deliver a vast amount of energy on a small spot on Earth, suggesting it could be an effective substitute for nuclear bombs.
  • Another participant argues that a nuclear bomb outputs more energy than any other source at the time of detonation, implying that lasers alone cannot match this capability without significant advancements.
  • A participant mentions the Airborne Laser as a prototype technology being developed, raising questions about its success and the technical hurdles involved.
  • Concerns about targeting accuracy and the potential for using a spread-out beam with higher amplitude are discussed, with some suggesting that these issues have been largely overcome.
  • References are made to historical concepts, such as the idea of powering lasers with nuclear devices, and the theoretical possibility of directing energy from a nuclear explosion.
  • Some participants note the challenges of fitting powerful lasers into compact systems, such as aircraft, and suggest that increasing mass may be necessary for practical implementation.
  • Discussion includes the notion of retrofitting large aircraft with fusion reactors to enhance power output for laser systems.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the feasibility and practicality of using lasers as substitutes for nuclear bombs. There is no consensus on whether current technologies can achieve the necessary power and targeting capabilities.

Contextual Notes

Participants highlight various technical challenges, including laser power output, targeting accuracy, and beam coherence, which remain unresolved in the context of practical applications.

sid_galt
Messages
503
Reaction score
1
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?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
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.

In any case, that's not what Star Wars is: its an anti-ballistic missile defense.
 
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.
OK.
russ_watters said:
In any case, that's not what Star Wars is: its an anti-ballistic missile defense.

Well, can that be done?
 
sid_galt said:
Well, can that be done?
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
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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

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?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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?
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.
 
russ_watters said:
Certainly not, unless you could power a laser or energy beam with a nuclear bomb
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.
 
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.
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.

[Google...] A few sites mention a nuclear x-ray laser (I'd heard of the x-ray laser, but not that it was powered by a nuclear weapon), but it doesn't look to me like that ever got off the drawing board. In any case, it seems it was at least possible.
 
russ_watters said:
[Google...] A few sites mention a nuclear x-ray laser
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.


Edit: The Union of Concerned Scientists http://www.ucsusa.org/ucs/about/page.cfm?pageID=769 mentions Kurt Gottfried as the "senior author" of The Fallacy of Star Wars, and Amazon.com lists John Tirman as the only author. However, IIRC Garwin said in his recent book Megawatts and Megatons that he was one of the contributors.[/color]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #10
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?

There have been problems. The biggest one has been getting a laser sufficiently powerful to fit in a small enough space to fit on a 747.
 
  • #11
Its possible but you would have to increase the mass.
 
Last edited:
  • #12
Anything is possible. A Boeing 747, Lufthansa AirBus or C-5 Galaxy can be retrofitted by a Fusion Reactor (x1000+ times more powerful compared to other powersource systems).

Like a mobile/portable version of this one http://fusion.gat.com/diii-d/photos/
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Similar threads

China Develops Laser Gun Like Star Wars: Burns Through Skin
  • · Replies 16 ·
Replies
16
Views
4K
Are There Sci-Fi Movies Similar to Oppenheimer?
  • · Replies 15 ·
Replies
15
Views
6K
Some hypothetical limits for the Star Wars universe?
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K
Is there any way to send instantaneous signals w/o breaking causality?
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
5K
What kind of telescope can see planets in other galaxies?
  • · Replies 13 ·
Replies
13
Views
4K
My arXiv preprint on a crewed interstellar spacecraft
  • · Replies 15 ·
Replies
15
Views
3K
Luke And Leia Ageing In Star Wars
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
2K
Undergrad Why Does Gravity Remain when Star Mass Dissipates?
  • · Replies 10 ·
Replies
10
Views
2K
Graduate Can quantum mechanics be combined with game theory?
  • · Replies 26 ·
Replies
26
Views
3K
High School Neutron star 4U 1820-30 spins at 716 revolutions per second
  • · Replies 0 ·
Replies
0
Views
3K