OT: Star Wars is real

[Dr Mordrid]

Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL):

On June 6, 2000, at the White Sands Missile Range testing facility in New Mexico, THEL managed to down a single live Katyusha (Russian made tactical missile), destroying it in midair.

Since then, other tests of the THEL system have been conducted at multiple incoming targets; those, too, have been destroyed.

Plans call for 12-18 months of field-testing, both in the U.S. and Israel. The THEL demonstrator will provide the first opportunity to assess the utility of high-energy lasers in an operational scenario.

"We've just turned science fiction into reality," Lt. Gen. John Costello, Commanding General, U.S. Army Space & Missile Defense Command, said of the first successful laser test.

Death Star:

Nicknamed the "Death Star," the space-based laser program is well underway, led by $4.1 billion in development funds supplied by the BMDO. The goal is to place SBL into orbit in 2012 and conduct tests by the next year. However, if Congress votes to accelerate funding for the project, experts believe SBL could be space-based by 2010 and ready to test.

The SBL project includes a constellation of 20 laser-firing satellites encircling the Earth, ready to fire on a missile launched from anywhere in the world on a moment's notice.

Whole article:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/ar...TICLE_ID=22213

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 29 March 2001).]

[Michel Carleer]

Doc,
Are you sure they will use it only for defense purposes?
This does not seem good news to me, having developed a new weapon.
Michka

[Dr Mordrid]

According to the article the space based portion's beam would dissipate in the lower atmosphere. It catches them in the boost phase in or above the stratosphere.

The ground based portion, because of being ground based, could only hit ground targets up to ~20 miles away.

Of course the part not in the article is that the USAF is going to deploy a group of 8 converted 747-400's with a device similar to the THEL mounted in its belly. This for battle theater operations;

http://www.theage.com.au/news/2001/0...X2L7IQ4IC.html

HPM weapons: High Power Microwave. These not only disrupt circuitry but can also disrupt nervous systems at a distance. These HPM weapons could also be made portable enough for platoon use.

Think: "phaser on stun".

Like the title of the post....

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 30 March 2001).]

[jrr]

If your looking for a real "Phaser" have you heard of a new kind of electrical imobaliser called a tetanizer. It works like a Taser electricuting the target but instead of firing electrodes out it uses two low power UV Lasers to ionise two channels of air, down which the electrical shock is applied.

So it is simply a point and shoot and can be used over a longer range than wire based tasers.

See http://hsvt.org/

James

[Dr Mordrid]

Now....if you can follow up that charge with a particle beam down an ionized channel and you would likely have a real life phaser with kill capability.

Make those particles enegertic enough and ....

Dr. Mordrid

[Brian Ellis]

Doc

No need for such things! Your President has declared he is going to destroy much of the planet with US fossil fuel pollution

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Brian (the terrible)

[Michel Carleer]

I find Doc's fascination for destruction engines quite astonishing.
Well, maybe I am a bit naive.
Michka


[This message has been edited by Michel Carleer (edited 31 March 2001).]

[TIbrO]

It could be that we're all just a bunch of nerds and find these new weapons fascinating, because they are real life manifestations of the fictitious toys in TV Shows about the distant future. And in the case of Star Wars, the distant past.

[Michel Carleer]

Maybe we should try from time to time to think a bit, and not let us be overwhelmed by our fascinations. After all, it's how we are supposed to be superior to the other animals.
Michka

[Dr Mordrid]

Superior? How so? All living things are survival engines, but each species takes a different path. Mans is by domination and modification of his surroundings.

Trying to change that in a single generation after 6 million years of evolution is futile and prone to causing even more disruption. The sooner we understand that the sooner we can go about changing the less desireable portions of our group behavior in a more objective manner.

Yes, I read (and mostly agree with) Ayn Rand

As for my interest in such things, is apathy better? Nope.

On a personal level I like to hunt and fish. That takes weaponry. I choose firearms (long and hand) and the primitive weapons (bowhunting, bowfishing, black powder firearms & spears) that are commonly used in my state.

I am also a competitive archer and shooter (trap & skeet (shotgun), rifle & handgun). I also can hit clay pidgeons with a boomerang. I started using one of those when I was 10. I'm 51 now.

There are as many archers and primitive weapon hunters here as gun hunters, and there are over 1 million of those in a state with 10 million people (Michigan). Hunting & fishing are among the states largest industries bringing in several billion dollars.

Dr. Mordrid

[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 01 April 2001).]

[Brian Ellis]

Michka

It is not you who is naive!

Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (1st Baron Lytton) 1803-73, British novelist and politician, wisely wrote:

"Beneath the rule of men entirely great
The pen is mightier than the sword."
(from his play Richelieu, 1839, act 2, sc. 2, l. 307.)

It is the fascination of arms in untrained hands that is killing schoolkids (as well as adults) in a number of countries, by adults and their peers, not to mention territorial strife. If arms-lovers wish to revert to the level of animals...

In another life, I used arms and was trained to use them to kill men, in the army. Happily, I never had to do so. In the wisdom of my old age (am now galloping up to 70), I have gradually observed over the last 20 years or so that there is no such thing as a defensive weapon. They are all offensive. Boomerangs, spears, firearms of any type, chemical weapons, bombs, landmines, missiles and so on, they are all designed basically to be used to attack other men or animals. I have nothing against hunting, on condition that it is a subsistence necessity. I have everything against hunting if it is just for the so-called pleasure of killing, seeing blood, appearing macho or being able to boast about one's prowess in the local bar. Any society that glorifies arms is a sick society. I consider that mankind, at its best, is well above that kind of thing. Unfortunately, at its worst, we still have Kosovo, Israel, Ireland, Nigeria, Indonesia, the Basque country or any other of the hot-spots in this not-so-perfect world. Arms escalates arms and cannot resolve a situation until the proponents sit around a table to resolve their differences. This is far more difficult than knocking the bejabers out of each other, but it is necessary every time. I suggest that the conflicts start with the talking, peacefully, rather than creating extra hatred by killing our supposed enemies to produce irresolvable situations.

Sorry, Doc, we are at absolutely opposite poles with this subject. Want to take a poke at me?



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Brian (the terrible)

[Flying dutchman]

"Starwars" will never work reliably:

There's only one thing worse than an atomic bomb exploding in cour city. That's an atomic bomb exploding ABOVE your city! The nuclear fallout does more long-term damage than the explosion.

So all the potential enemy has to do is to re-program their nuclear missiles to make them detonate as soon as their radar detects an intercepting missile...

It's a bit like shooting on a gasoline truck - you don't really want to do that...

[Michel Carleer]

Brian,
That's exactly what I wanted to point out, but with less words only because english is not my mother language (and also because I don't like that much to speak or write).
You know, from time to time I look at the French TV cahnnel TF1. This is a private company, owned by people that I would put to the far right of the political scene in France. They show every evening a program called something like "Stories about Nature". In fact, they only speak about hunting. Almost each time, you will see one or several guys telling how wonderful Nature is, and how beautiful the animals are. And at the same time, they have a dead bird or rabbit or whatever in their hands, and their fingers are maculated with blood. It is really disgusting.

Doc,
My remark about how we are supposed to be superior by our intelligence and our ability to think was cynical. We only use our intelligence to be more productive in our basic instincts, not to raise the standards of our behaviours. One of these basic instincts being, as you mention in your reply, to justify everything by the fact that it brings more money. You don't have to say explicitely that you are a US citizen, you write it down in every sentence you write. And there is a high dose of criticism (although it is meant to be polite and friendly) in my last sentence.
Michka

[Dr Mordrid]

Who needs a nuke going off over your city for an orbital defence? That was only necessary with a nuclear pumped laser, which isn't on the table. Chemical lasers (MIRACL & COIL), don't have a radiation footprint.

The facination with this technology is also on a very practical level. The anti-space weaponry treaties of the last 30-40 hears are seriously in need of review, especially in terms of terrorist organizations obtaining both missile and nuclear technologies. The treaty writers of those times did not forsee how rapidly such threats would evolve.

Because of this I feel that the US is in the forefront of confronting this emerging issue. IMHO the Europeans, Russians etc. are way behind the curve on this and will only come around once one of their cities has been turned into a crater by some lunatic with enough money to pull it off. This doesn't have to be Ben Laden & his morons. It could just be a bunch of pissed off Chechnyans or some cult.

Once something like that happens these laggards, as usual, will run to the front of the missile defence parade yelling "ME TOO!!" at the top of their lungs.

How very typical.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 01 April 2001).]

[Brian Ellis]

Doc

Please allow me to amend slightly one of your paragraphs, and we'll be a lot closer to the truth.

Because of this I feel that the US is in the forefront of confronting. IMHO the Europeans, Russians etc. are way ahead of the curve on humanity and will only come around once one of their cities has been turned into a crater by some lunatic with enough money to pull it off. This doesn't have to be Ben Laden & his morons. It could just be a bunch of pissed off Americans.

I can assure you that we are a helluva lot more scared of the aggressive characteristics that appear, from time to time, out of the USA than from a Tchechnyan rebel. Certainly, we would not be as free with dishing out useless sanctions at the drop of a hat: we would rather ask the guy in charge how we could resolve a problem than to condemn his innocent people to a life of misery and privation, while he laughs his head off. At the same time, the USA provides arms to countries like Turkey, so they can kill off Kurds and deprive their citizens - and those of territories which they belligerently and illegally occupy - of their basic human rights. But I suppose these same arms are - in your light - defending the free world, rather than being used to commit genocide. Or the same to Israelis, who are slaughtering Palestinians with US-made weapons.

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Brian (the terrible)