Welcome To The Future, Prepare To Die

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10682693

They actually have a video of the laser destroying a UAV. It's not much to look at, but I think this is the first unclassified image of a moderately hard target getting destroyed by a laser.

I want my laser cannon right now!

just a question wouldnt the power source need to be nuclear to provide such power?

Originally posted by King Castle
just a question wouldnt the power source need to be nuclear to provide such power?

No. Nuclear power plants don't provide especially high wattage, their main advantage is exceptional endurance.

what's the power source?

Originally posted by King Castle
what's the power source?

the tears of unfathomable sorrow

edit: also babies

Originally posted by King Castle
what's the power source?

Are you asking about the real laser or the one from the game? 😕

Originally posted by King Castle
what's the power source?

I doesn't say. Probably whatever powers the ship they're on. Nuclear would be a good bet since in practice that's the easiest way to get high wattage with a reasonable volume and mass, it's not the only way to get the needed power.

Consider this. The laser needs a constant 50kW to run. A Nimitz Class aircraft carrier has an output of 190MW from its twin nuclear reactors. If it came to a stop it could fire 3800 of these lasers at once. A modern diesel train puts out 3MW, enough to power 60 of these if it produced it as electricity rather than forward motion.

The big break through here is reduced energy requirements.

i only ask b/c i only know of the star wars program satellite and i am sure its power source is nuclear.. but, i could be wrong.

satellites are almost entirely solar powered. the weight requirements of a nuclear reactor would hardly be worth the extra wattage.

you also probably don't want unserviceable nuclear power plants in an eventual retrograde orbit with earth

Originally posted by inimalist
satellites are almost entirely solar powered. the weight requirements of a nuclear reactor would hardly be worth the extra wattage.

you also probably don't want unserviceable nuclear power plants in an eventual retrograde orbit with earth

http://www.animatedsoftware.com/spacedeb/canadapl.htm

Originally posted by King Castle
nuclear powered satellites in space.

http://www.animatedsoftware.com/spacedeb/canadapl.htm

go humans...

the article talks about how rare and ineffective they are, and with modern solar tech I can't imagine we'd be wasting money on this anymore, but colour me shocked

its the stupidest thing we ever done.. iirc reading somewhere if one of the star wars satellite exploded in earth atmosphere it could kill a large majority of earth life via contamination.

I'm not sure about the scale of he damage, I've heard reputable scientists argue the spectrum from Fallout-esque wasteland to harmless lightshow, but ya, it seems like it is something we should have known better than in the 60-70s, but I guess that is from the perspective of someone not living through the cold war.

back in the 80's my school was still doing nuclear attack procedure get underneath the desk BS..

wow... my parents remember that from the 50/60s, but we didn't keep that up...

is this common? were most places in the states still doing this in the 80s?

it was in east L.A. i think about 87 to 89.. not sure if it was common..

man, I tried talking to my parents about the cold war, and they said they didn't even notice it in the 80s

Pretty cool, though not as cool as the military's idea of a 'gay bomb', imo.

Two things they should add to the laser:

1) Color. Not epic if it's invisible; I prefer green.

2) Sound effect. Not epic if it's quiet. Needs either a 'Tha-pffff' or the classic SW 'pew-pew'. Either will work.

i think you parents under went the nuclear arm race the cold war started in the 80's and ended in the 90's..

it was two different events.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War_%281985%E2%80%931991%29
The Cold War period of 1985-1991 began with the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev as Soviet leader. Gorbachev was a revolutionary leader for the USSR, as he was the first to promote liberalization of the political landscape (Glasnost) and capitalist elements into the economy (Perestroika); prior to this, the USSR had been strictly prohibiting liberal reform and maintained an inefficient centralized economy. The USSR, facing massive economic difficulties, was also greatly interested in reducing the costly arms race with the US. Reagan's policies of aggressive confrontation and arms buildups through much of his term prevented the USSR from cutting back its military spending as much as it might have liked. Regardless, the USSR began to crumble as liberal reforms proved difficult to handle and capitalist changes to the centralized economy were badly transitioned and caused major problems. After a series of revolutions in Soviet Bloc states, the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.