Plasma Weapons?

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 5:55 pm

[quote=Wikipedia]At present, plasma cannons are only hypothetical weapons, as the amount of power that they need is currently beyond the capacity of any handheld device. Plasma rifles might not be possible, as the concept of plasma-firing weapons is scientifically difficult, for various reasons:

* The plasma shot out of a plasma rifle tends to dissipate in the surrounding environment within about 50 centimeters from the gun, from thermal and/or electric pressure expansion, called blooming, unless the magnetic confinement bottle is extended all the way to the target (as it was in the games Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2), or the particles are fired at high enough speed to reach a target before blooming occurs. This is then a particle beam more than a plasma beam.
* The technology to create plasma toroids and particle beams is presently far too bulky for anything man-portable. In such a high-performance design, the plasma would have to be stored and created in highly focused magnetic bottles, such as those used in NASA's VASIMR rocket: this design has been suggested as a potential weapon design for future real human-engineered plasma weapons. For simpler designs based on plasma cutting torches, a designer could get away with using an arcjet to heat the plasma, if his power source is strong enough.
* Using current technology, if a plasma beam was fired in a planetary atmosphere, it would quickly be stopped by atmospheric resistance and would make a short hot flame like a blowtorch
* One virtually universal characteristic of plasma weaponry is its tendency to overheat, thus being sometimes impractical even within the context of science fiction.[/quote]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_rifle

I remember someone posting something about plasma weapons that were "supposedly" being developed a while back. Could anyone give me some information on this or on some realistic energy weapons that could possibly be developed?

Just something I would like to read up on.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 6:53 pm

Well you know that your military currently has a heavily modified 747 with a very high capacity Laser on board don't you? I do not know the output of this testbed, but it must be in the tens-of-kilowatts range and I would not be surprised if it has surpassed into the Megawatt class.

Look for this technology to be added to an AC-130 gunship sometime in the not-too-distant future.

FYI: a beamed-power laser launcher to get a 1-ton payload into space needs to be in the tens-of-megawatt class, and pulsing at 30-50 times a second.

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 10:04 pm

The problem with any kinda particle energy weapon is that it's effected by gravity and it's very short ranged. Lightning is a form of plasma btw.

Avder · Post by **Avder** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 12:12 am

From my understanding, lightning is just a stream of electrons traveling either to or from the earth. The plasma is a result of the interation between the massive amount of energy in the lightning and the air in the path of the bolt.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 1:45 am

Yup, the plasma comes after the lightning.

Flatlander · Post by **Flatlander** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 7:38 am

Mobius wrote:Well you know that your military currently has a heavily modified 747 with a very high capacity Laser on board don't you? I do not know the output of this testbed, but it must be in the tens-of-kilowatts range and I would not be surprised if it has surpassed into the Megawatt class.

Look for this technology to be added to an AC-130 gunship sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Actually, the ABL ain't doin' so hot right now:

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Firefli ... Laser.html

AceCombat · Post by **AceCombat** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 4:51 pm

nice name for the problem...... fireflies

Isaac · Post by **Isaac** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 8:19 pm

even better than plasma is fusuion

they already made a car AND a rasor with it...

\"Ford Fusion: Sticks to the road like a positively charged electron.\" -ford billboard

\"breakthrough technology\" -gillette.com

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 8:39 pm

Isaac wrote: "breakthrough technology" -gillette.com

Why on earth does anyone need 5 blades on one razor???

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 9:40 pm

Duper wrote:
Isaac wrote: "breakthrough technology" -gillette.com

Why on earth does anyone need 5 blades on one razor???

Five? Five is for pansies...

10-bladed razor

Yeah, just a spoof, but just you wait...

RoBoT · Post by **RoBoT** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 3:42 pm

There's actually SIX blades on that thing, BTW; the five on the one side of the head, plus one more on the opposite side for \"precision\" shaving. Six new ways to tear your face to shreds!

Man, I'd hate to pay the electric bills for whoever's researching these plasma weapons...

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 4:08 pm

RoBoT wrote:Man, I'd hate to pay the electric bills for whoever's researching these plasma weapons...

um.. that would be "us" as many of these research projects are done on grant money.

Isaac · Post by **Isaac** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 7:16 pm

i think their ads are over the top..

lol... and while ur there check this out

and omfg!!

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 12:14 am

Keep it on-topic please.

Isaac · Post by **Isaac** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 5:05 am

[]V[]essenjah wrote:Keep it on-topic please.

lol

Drakona · Post by **Drakona** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 3:23 pm

Mobius wrote:Well you know that your military currently has a heavily modified 747 with a very high capacity Laser on board don't you?

I don't know about "currently has", but definitely "currently working on". In fact, when my program was cancelled a couple weeks ago, I was thinking of switching to that one. I went elsewhere, but it's still cool to read about.

It's sometimes amazing to me how much stuff from science fiction is in current development.

TIGERassault · Post by **TIGERassault** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 5:04 pm

IIRC, it is actually possible to make a ringworld capable of obliterating planets, if you have the recourses.
It works by, you guessed it... Plasma.
Plasma is also my nickname. TIGERassault is an old one.

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