At the end of 2012, a rumor spread among Internet users that the US government was going to build the Death Star, a superweapon from the Star Wars epic, capable of destroying entire planets.
In response to the commotion that arose, the White House administration explained that they had received a petition from science fiction fans to build a similar battle station. However, the government rejected this project due to its inexpediency and high cost. But is it possible to build a Death Star in reality? If not, is it possible even to come close to its destructive power? Will lasers replace modern weapons? Well, let's sort things out in order.
What is a laser
The word "laser" is an abbreviation for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, which translates as "amplification of light by stimulated emission." To put it simply, it is a device that converts energy and scattered light into a narrowly directed high frequency beam.
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The main component of any laser is the working fluid, or the medium through which the electrical pulse is supplied. When a large amount of energy is received from the outside, the medium becomes extremely unstable, and its atoms begin to collide with each other, this releases a huge number of photons, which amplify the electron beam many times over. The light then enters the resonator, where it is focused into a thin laser beam using two mirrors.
Combat use
Despite all the technological advances in recent decades, it is too early to talk about the full-scale use of lasers for military purposes. And there are objective reasons for this.
One of them is the lack of energy-intensive charges or small batteries for small arms. Even the most powerful lithium batteries will not provide even a thousandth of the required energy for at least one blaster burst. To have enough power, you'll have to connect your weapon to a power cable. That is, in fact, you need a matchbox-sized battery with the energy capacity of an entire power plant. So far, developments in this area continue.
Another reason is the unreliability of the working bodies. For example, laser pointers, which are actively used by hooligans to interfere with aircraft, can shine at a distance of up to 50 kilometers, but at the same time have a low specific power. If you pump enough energy into the pointer to destroy the car, it will simply explode in the hands of the shooter.
Crystals, which are supposed to be used as working media for blasters and beam guns, do not withstand much stress and crack. So in the next 15-20 years, our servicemen will have to continue using conventional machine guns and rifles.
The program that shook the world
Unlike light small arms, the development of powerful laser combat systems has been successfully continuing for the past 30 years. The first such project, in comparison with which any atomic bomb seemed like a child's prank, was the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) program. Its beginning was announced by the President of the United States Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983.
It was planned to create a whole anti-missile complex with ground and space based, which would include orbiting satellites with laser cannons. The scope of the project was simply amazing, so the press dubbed it the "Star Wars" program, based on the film of the same name by George Lucas, which appeared on the big screen shortly before this event.
At that time, the United States feared a nuclear attack from the USSR, because Soviet missiles were superior to their American counterparts, and in the event of a war, the advantage could not be on America's side. Therefore, the Pentagon intended to launch into orbit a constellation of assassin satellites capable of destroying missiles on takeoff.
The US military wanted to put chemically pumped lasers on satellites with powers up to 20 megawatts. Such stations would be able to instantly detect and detonate enemy missiles. Each laser had enough charge for a thousand series of 50-70 seconds each.
It was also decided to install nuclear-pumped X-ray lasers on special missiles, which were supposed to take off from submarines at the very beginning of the attack and, leaving the atmosphere, fire a shot. The fact is that nuclear reactions can produce tens or even hundreds of millions of times more energy than chemical ones. In this case, these installations would turn from defensive weapons into offensive ones, they could literally incinerate entire cities!
But here, too, problems arose. The main thing was the laser itself. The X-ray laser is a small nuclear bomb surrounded on all sides by thick copper rods. When the charge explodes, the rods collect and focus the resulting X-ray wave into a powerful laser beam.
However, when the charge explodes, the laser itself explodes. It is necessary to aim the weapon at the target as accurately as possible, because there will be no second chance. There were also problems of a political nature associated with the treaty on the non-deployment of nuclear weapons in outer space. Plus a fabulous price tag of hundreds of billions of dollars. This idea had to be abandoned.
Star Wars in action
However, despite the full readiness to implement the project, with the collapse of the USSR, the need to deploy space lasers disappeared by itself.
Today, all efforts are directed primarily at reducing the size of laser systems. There are ready-made land, sea and air samples undergoing field tests. Due to its bulkiness, the air version was installed in the Boeing-747.
However, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has already announced that they have materials on a laser cannon that can be installed in a light fighter. Its weight will be about 750 kilograms.
But still, is it possible to create a hyperlaser to destroy planets? Yes, it is possible.
Second Sun
The main problem is energy supply. The Death Star will require a tremendous amount of energy. The most likely option for energy supply may be thermonuclear fusion. This is a kind of scaled-down version of the process that takes place in the cores of all stars in the universe.
In modern nuclear power, atoms of enriched uranium split and collide, thereby generating heat. During thermonuclear fusion inside a star, hydrogen atoms under tremendous gravitational pressure begin to combine into heavier helium atoms, and the temperature can reach 100 million degrees Celsius.
Today, an international group of scientists is working to create the most powerful reactor in the history of mankind, ITER. This is the International Experimental Thermonuclear Reactor (ITER), or unofficially the "second sun". According to the designers, the reactor will be fully operational in 2022. It is designed to generate 500 megawatts of electricity.
However, the reactors that can power the Death Star superlaser will most likely appear in no more than 1000 years.
In addition, the cost of the Death Star goes far beyond sanity. According to experts, taxpayers will have to fork out for its construction - attention! - 850 quadrillion dollars !!! For you to better understand how much this is, we can say that the total GDP of all countries on Earth is about 85 trillion US dollars, that is, only 0.01% of the required amount!
A laser from orbit can break large meteorites into smaller ones
For such a grandiose project, the resources of several hundred star systems will be needed. Even for a hypothetical galactic empire, this would be an almost overwhelming project. And this despite the fact that it is proposed to build the first, small "Death Star". If anyone does not know, then according to the plot of "Star Wars" there were two stations: the diameter of the first was 164 kilometers, and the second was more than 900 kilometers (for comparison: the diameter of the moon is about 3474 kilometers). How much money will be required for the larger version is even scary to imagine.
But enthusiasts are not discouraged: they have started collecting donations on a special Internet platform Kickstarter. To begin with, they need $ 30 million to begin the detailed design of the super combat station.
Of course, you can twist your finger at your temple, they say, there is nothing more to do, but after all, even the best minds in the world once argued that it was impossible to create an atomic bomb, and frankly laughed at attempts to design it. But after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world has changed forever.
Adilet URAIMOV