Plasma

[Calax]

Often we find that in comics and other games and movies plasma is used as a weapon. I'm wondering the what the basics of plasma are... call it what you will I'm curious how you can get what is bacially a jet into a giant ball of explosive energy.

[Child of Flame]

It's basically superheated matter to my understanding.

 

Or a component of blood.

 

Take your pick really!

[Calax]

notice the topic line?

 

Plasma

Not the blood kind

[Laozi]

I know plasma is hot, much like magma

 

 

 

 

 

I like that word magma

 

 

 

magma

 

magma

 

magma

 

magma

[EnderAndrew]

Plasma is another state of matter, like gas, solid and liquid.

 

There are are actually far more than 3 states of matter. When lightning strikes, lightning supposedly exists in a state of plasma.

[Laozi]

EnderAndrew, you were a Marine, are the plasma rifles really as cool as they seem, do they kick?

 

 

 

 

Is Ripley really that good with the robo-forklift?

[jaguars4ever]

Is Ripley really that good with the robo-forklift?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've gots to get me one of them. I'll just add it to the lightsaber I have on my Christmast list.

[EnderAndrew]

I got infantry training, but I wasn't in the infantry, so I never trained on the newer stuff like Mounted Warrior, MULE, etc. If the marines have plasma technology it is news to me.

 

Edit: Okay, apparently I missed the joke the first time around. Sorry.

Edited September 29, 2005 by EnderAndrew

[jaguars4ever]

I got infantry training, but I wasn't in the infantry, so I never trained on the newer stuff like Mounted Warrior, MULE, etc.  If the marines have plasma technology it is news to me.

 

Edit: Okay, apparently I missed the joke the first time around.  Sorry.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Damn. I always thought you were a pro them Bigger Frigger fisticuff weoponry.

[Darkside]

I know they use plasma to induce fusion in the Tokamek fusion reactor in Russia. Not only does it reach the required 1000000 degrees C, but the gas (at that temp the plasma turns into a super heated gas) interacts with magnents inside the reactor to create an electromagnetic force field to contain the heat. Pretty sweet stuff really.

[EnderAndrew]

I use it to make toast.

[Hildegard]

I don't know excatly about plasma weapons, but when it comes to laser weapons, well after more than four decades of doggedly pursuing laser technology, engineers working in at least three laboratories around the Southland have been quietly developing high-powered, solid-state lasers that some many say could revolutionize warfare.

 

The laser guns are still years away from being used in combat and won't play any role in the ongoing conflict in Iraq. In fact, it may be the end of the decade before they are installed on fighters, tanks and destroyers.

 

But laser scientists say significant technical challenges recently have been overcome, transforming laser weapons from a laboratory project into a promising part of the U.S. arsenal. With such lasers, a fighter jet could destroy ground targets with pinpoint accuracy, significantly reducing the chance of injuring civilians.

 

Director for high-energy laser programs at Raytheon Corp. had signed a deal with DoD and built a laboratory recently to put together a table-size solid-state laser weapon. Raytheon already is working with Lockheed Martin to outfit the next-generation fighter jet, the JSF F-35 with a solid-state laser. Lockheed officials said they are considering modifying the short takeoff-vertical landing version of the plane to carry a 100-kilowatt laser gun. The weapon would be powered by electricity generated by the jet engine and used mainly to defend the warplane from missiles. And Raytheon is also teaming with Northrop Grumman Corp. to outfit the next-generation Navy destroyer, the DDX, with a laser that would use the ship's electric drive to power a laser-based air-defense system.

 

At Boeing's research facilities, engineers are working on advanced tactical lasers that could fit on the company's V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft and other helicopters to take out short-range targets.

 

The TRW Corp., which has about 500 engineers working on laser programs, has been exploring the possibility of developing a laser that would fit in a casing the size of an external fuel tank. It could then be attached under the wings of fighter jets, much like a missile or a bomb.

So you see the laser weapons race within the US companies, is going on for about 15 years now.....

However, the laser's potential as a weapon was recognized when it was conceived way back in 1957, but development has been slow, the actual development of laser weapons started already in 1962...and now it's not clear how much the Pentagon has spent developing a laser weapon, but an Air Force official last summer said that his service alone had poured $4.5 billion into direct-energy weapons, which include microwave and chemical laser technologies.

 

It's interesting to know that back in 2000 the U.S. Army and the Israel Ministry of Defence (IMoD) tested the Army's Tactical High Energy Laser/Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrator (THEL/ACTD), the world's first high-energy laser weapon system designed for operational use, to shoot down a rocket carrying a live warhead.

The shootdown was indeed succesfull and with this achievement laser/plasma weapons turned from science fiction into reality......

Edited September 29, 2005 by Hildegard

[EnderAndrew]

Slashdot reported China was developing new laser weapons as well.

 

And Romulus is developing disrupter technology.

[Hildegard]

Slashdot reported China was developing new laser weapons as well.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Don't know if it's true, but China's defense budgit doesn't make it possible for them to be on the same development stage as the US...

 

And Romulus is developing disrupter technology.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Very funny.[sarcasm\]

[Lucius]

China is developing laser defenses for their MBT's when targeted by Anti-tank crew in order to blind them permanently, it's not like they're trying to make a Death Star, dude... Although they might fancy that idea.

Edited September 29, 2005 by Lucius

[EnderAndrew]

Number 2 is still working on sharks will friggin' laser beams.

 

However, LOST has Sharks with logos.

 

http://elitemrp.net/fark/2005/logoshark1.jpg

Edited September 29, 2005 by EnderAndrew

[213374U]

Plasma.

 

[Judge Hades]

Hmmm... Plasma...

 

*munch munch munch SLUUUUUUUUUUUUURP*

[213374U]

Well, I reckon it'd be fun to see you munch on ionised gas, but you would most certainly not be like "slurp" after you tried.

Edited September 29, 2005 by 213374U

[Judge Hades]

Gas?

 

*BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURP*

 

Excuse me. :D

[Hildegard]

O.K. Calax I found something that could interest you about plasma weapons:

 

What are Plasma Weapons?

 

 

For those who are not already aware, plasma is usually described as the fourth state of matter, after solid, liquid, and gas. More technically, it is ionized gas, ie- gas in which the energy level is so high that the electrons will not stay confined in their atomic energy shells so they escape. The Earth's Sun is largely composed of plasma, which can also be described as a hot "soup" of free-floating nuclei and electrons. Therefore, a plasma weapon would logically be something that fires plasma at the target.

 

However, particle beams fire ions at the target, yet they are generally called particle beams, not "plasma weapons". So what is the distinction? It seems to be that a plasma weapon is primarily a heat-based weapon, ie- it is the internal energy of a hot plasmoid which damages the target, not the forward kinetic energy of the ion stream.

 

Indeed, so-called "plasma weapons" in sci-fi generally fire visible "bolts" which move far, far slower than the particles of a hot plasma would move. For example, a typical hand-held "plasma weapon" in sci-fi will fire a bolt that moves at 1 km/s at the most, or may even be subsonic, yet even a relatively "cold" 1 eV plasma will have an average (root mean squared) particle velocity of 13.8 km/s for nuclei and 593 km/s for electrons (assuming even energy distribution).

 

This is a major impediment to their effectiveness and an incomprehensible "feature"; why would one even want a plasma weapon where the particle velocities are all randomized in a slow-moving confined blob, rather than being directed forward at great velocity as they would be in a particle beam? Such a weapon would be far less penetrative by its nature, hence far less efficient even if it works.

 

And these weapons generally have one other fascinating on-screen trait: they do not appear to be affected by gravity. This is not a small quibble; dense objects like bullets drop in gravity, and light objects like helium balloon float up due to buoyancy.

 

You can't normally see a bullet dropping because it is too small and fast to see with the naked eye in flight, but the arcing is appreciable and significant, yet it is not present in sci-fi "plasma weapon" blasts, which fly straight and true to their targets as if there is no gravity at all. One could attempt to rationalize this with a projectile that has the density of air, but if it has the density of air, then it would have the aerodynamic properties of a cool air balloon, which would make a poor projectile to say the least.

 

How well would a Plasma Weapon work?

 

 

The short answer is: at any range where it takes more than a thousandth of a second for the bolt to reach the target, not too well. You see, plasma spreads very quickly, and while plasma guns actually do exist in real-life1, and have been proposed as a mechanism for replenishing the fuel burn-up fraction in a Tokomak-style fusion reactor for steady-state operation, they have never been seriously considered as a weapon.

 

They can fire a "blob" of plasma in the MJ-range, but this blob would not stay together for much distance in vacuum, never mind atmosphere where they would run into a virtual brick wall (sea-level atmosphere is billions of times denser than a fusion plasma). You could extend the range by hurling these ions out of the barrel at an extreme velocity (eg- relativistic), but those moving bolts we see in sci-fi do not appear to be traveling anywhere near that quickly.

 

All right, so why don't we just confine the plasma? Well of course, there's the obvious objection that a blob of plasma will not confine itself, so you'd have to create some kind of magical containment field which moves with the bolt and requires no technological apparatus to sustain itself. But it gets worse. Let's say we're talking about a 1 metre long bolt with a diameter of

[Musopticon?]

Just one thing; what the heck does it matter what fiction writers call their weapons?

[Weiser_Cain]

That's a long post, has anyone mentioned that with the energy needed to produce the plasma in the first place you could pretty much destroy whatever you were aiming for by applying that energy in a much less exotic form?

[Hildegard]

Just one thing; what the heck does it matter what fiction writers call their weapons?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Often we find that in comics and other games and movies plasma is used as a weapon. I'm wondering the what the basics of plasma are... call it what you will I'm curious how you can get what is bacially a jet into a giant ball of explosive energy.

 

The topic starter asked a question, I'm simply trying to answer it......and just one thing: if names of weapons given by science fiction writers irritate you, then I suggest you evade this topic to prevent possible harrasment.

[Musopticon?]

"if names of weapons given by science fiction writers irritate you,"

 

How did you come up with that?

 

And I'm critisizing the original text, not you.