Pulse Laser Rifle: Fiction-Theory-Reality?

I will come out right now and say that this particular Laser Rifle is lightweight, incredibly cool, yet highly dangerous (as I have come to understand even the process of building is dangerous).

You might say that what I hope to create is quite fantastical and surreal, not to mention would cost a huge sum of money to build and(likely) maintain.

Though, before jumping into building something such as this, I need to build my first laser and rack up experience, however this Thread will remain the staging for the Rifle attempt, as well as serve as the place to mount up enough resources and actually get this ball rolling.

But before any of this happens, I must address the much better skilled artisans of this forum to address what I am trying to create and fill this fantasy with logic and sound knowledge of lasers, electronics and physics.

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Clinchers:
- How powerful of a laser must be produced in order to punch holes through at least 5-7cm of wood?

- For that matter, can such a laser be housed in a portable device?

- And by the slightest chance, could such a laser gun fire "rounds" of pulses on automatic? And what kind of engineering would that require?


And yes... I am serious.

_________________

Best desired housing:

First of all, I would use my own design for a housing. At least modify it and give it your special touch!

Regarding your specs: No pulse laser will punch thru 7cm of wood. Light has no mass...so you would have to heat it up and vapourize it. You can calculate whats needed to do this...how much energy is needed.

Just to tell you right away: You cant propel plasma that easy...no weapon-potential ;-)

Agree, you are going to need 1000s of times more energy to accomplish something truely destructive using photons.
It is almost more realistic going for a chemical laser to keep the weight down. Yet again who wants HF anywhere near them is beyond me.
Goal would be to try and find a chemical reaction that produces IR light without Flourine or Chlorine.

Chemical lasers...right. Who else has a pump at home capable of pumping TOXIC chemicals with mach1? Cant see your hands....

Forget about that. Wouldnt be that small...I wouldnt think of such a rifle yet! Its only a distraction. Focus on your first gun. You will find out soon enough, that laser are nothing but tools ;-) no weapons.

About the "best desired housing" image ..... cool, but ..... inefficent and dangerous ..... and too much corners !!

Let me try to explain ..... is supposed to design a weapon, right ? ..... a weapon can be used in a lot of different situations or environments, including uncomfortable and dangerous ones, right ? ..... So, must be considered any possible obstacle and situation, designing it ..... i also like "futuristic looks" weapons, but for the practical use, it's a different matter .....

Going around in these situations with a weapon that can hang, trip or stuck too easy, from wires, vegetables, hanging belts, or anything other, in the environment, that can become trapped or hooked from corners and hooks, is too much dangerous and too much inefficent ..... the perfect design may be an oval smooth shape, but ofcourse it's impossible ..... but anyway, some efforts can be made for improve a profile that can be the less dangerous one for the carrier .....

Also, you are speaking about a high energy weapon, and the employment environment can include water, or the possibility to fall in water ..... high energies storages and water are, usually, not good friends (kaboom ) ..... so, the weapon must have waterproof parts, and where the circuitry require heat dissipation, metallic or finned parts connected withthe power elements and still waterproof, or, better said, modular resin sealed parts, cause there's always the possibility that the parts become damaged, and a soldier can't ask "timeout", pull a soldering iron and start a repair, in the middle of a battle , where instead if the elements are all modular resin sealed parts, a working weapon can be reassembled from parts of damaged others, if needed .....

And again, like in another post about future weapons, as i said, carrying around a high energy storage, it must be designed for become virtually unbreakable (what happens if you carry around a 100 megajoule energy container, and a shot hit it in your hands, freeing all the energy inside in a single flash ? )

And so on, these are not all the problems designing a weapon, just few ones

XD nice post...actually you are absolutely right, but: I think he want something LOOKING like a gun with a lot of power. We arent taking about some papercraft, but we arent going to end up in Irak either ;-)

AnselmoFanZero said:

..... I think he want something LOOKING like a gun with a lot of power.....

Click to expand...

Do you mean something like this ?



LOL, sorry, just kidding :crackup:

XD this would barely punch thru 5 cm of wood I GUESS ^^

AnselmoFanZero said:

XD this would barely punch thru 5 cm of wood I GUESS ^^

Click to expand...

Don't know about wood ..... the manufacturer only mention somewhere in the description, something about passing 13cm of cement walls, but i don't know the equivalence with wood ..... :evil: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

(20x82 is the bullet size ..... )

Will penetrate a tank from front to back!

Now guess how much laser-energy is needed to perform this trick. Its way easier to fire a bullet (no need for a 20x82 most of the time)

Even a railgun or ETG has more potential to replace conventional firearms! A laser-supported device, like the MEDUSA particle-beam weapon will be far more effective ^^ cant wait til they test this thing. Even though it is kinda sick...

Oh, if for this, laser weapons are already operative, like the THEL and his new "portable" version, the MTHEL (portable with a truck ) ..... but they are mainly used for defensive purposes .....

Like in this demo video, where it's used for blow 3 mortar rounds one rear the other .....


There was also a demo video where it was used for take down a little "piper" type airplane used as target, but i'm unable to find it ..... anyway, in that video it needed for stay pointed on the airplane like 15 or 20 seconds, before it blow, and with actual jets this is practically impossible .....

Funny....the THEL is gone. Actually, I am VERY surprised, that the USofA are smart enough to recognize: Chemical lasers are kinda bad...bad bad BAD lasers. The exhaust is more dangerous than the beam...like out of a SciFi-movie.

DPSS is coming ^^ or even more powerful stuff they wont show. I dont wanna know what they are hinding from us, when I see what the show us.

So essentially, the technology that we have currently couldn't be used to build a weapon like the Autorifle in the OP. At least as portable, efficient and user-friendly?

And I'm more than willing to deviate from the desired housing... at least for now ^_^

Light has no mass...so you would have to heat it up and vapourize it. You can calculate whats needed to do this...how much energy is needed.

Click to expand...

How can I calculate that? What type of equipment, etc

There IS a real plasma-gun...firing a ring of plasma...BUT: They say (and I agree and believe) that this ring, even if its energy is real high, wouldnt even leave a black stain on a white shirt.
Its called a coaxial marshall cannon / accelerator...afaik, its a BUILDING, no actual device ;-)
Defenetaly not portable...even a bench-top version would be hard! Lasers and plasma would work better in space btw. MAYBE you could make a plasma-cannon...I would try to raise density of the plasma, then propel it. Would take longer for the plasma to disperse in mid-air.

ansel, do you go around bashing the united states in every thread or what?
whats your problem?


michael

AnselmoFanZero said:

Funny....the THEL is gone. Actually, I am VERY surprised, that the USofA are smart enough to recognize: Chemical lasers are kinda bad...bad bad BAD lasers. The exhaust is more dangerous than the beam...like out of a SciFi-movie.

Click to expand...

Yeah that's not cool. Germany is not so perfect either with past and present history. If you dont like the US then why dont you get off this US based forum? Oh yeah, because there are not that many German based laser forums. Typical Euro trash. Bashes the US, but wears our cloths, eats our food, and wants our knowledge. We have an old saying, if you dont like it leave. If you dont want to leave, then shut up.