Pointing laser at UFO

[ossumguywill]

Sattelite... some of them are very fast

Im pretty sure there must me extraterestral life somewhere in this infinite universe but i rather wont bet that they found a way for travelling FTL to visit our planet...

The only reason anyone would possibly find our planet over the trillions of other ones is because we've been broadcasting high-power low frequency radio waves for a while now, but even then the range of our earliest low power transmissions is only around 115 light years, and our higher power transmissions even less.

 

[Benm]

Just think what we would do if we developed FTL drive of some kind... we'd probably set off to explore, but also to plunder other worlds for resources. As i figure, the less advanced a planet is, the more natural resources would be left.

I suppose it would be very unpleasant if we got a visit like that... you never know what resource would be scarce when a society develops FTL drive, but there is bound to be something, and if it was on earth to begin with, chances are there is lots of it left to steal

 

[Toke]

A few months ago I were standing on the bridge of a merchant ship in the bay of Aden. The window were open and I were looking at a US warship puttering along at the entrance to the piracy corridor.

I were looking through the thermal binoculars of our naval guards, and were told "do not use the laser range finder" Not really a problem as I did not know how to use it.

The explanation was that military vessels and aircraft's have laser detectors that will, in some cases, pinpoint the location of the laser and respond to the percieved threath in a rather aggressive manner.

The Apache helicopter were mentioned as an example, a laser pointer may get a 30mm salvo in response.

 

[Benm]

I suppose there must be some human decision involved before firing though.

This might not be the case for long though, with many missions now being performed by unmanned drones. I suppose those could be programmed to respond aggressively to what appears to be a rangefinder, though i doubt they would be due to the chances of mistake. Also, it would allow to distract and deplete the drones of ammo using just some cheap laser pointers and timer circuits.

The latter seems surreal, but its a proven concept in the war in yugoslavia: microwave ovens were used as fake radars to attract anti-radar missiles that home in on microwave emissions. Apparently a scrap microwaven oven with its door interlock sabotaged would be enough to catch such missiles... $10 worth of old crap catching millions worth of armaments.

 

[ossumguywill]

I suppose there must be some human decision involved before firing though.

I think it was dieselmarine who told me about this system, but in the audio-based system designed to detect the firing of 7.62x39 and 7.62x54 ammunition (ammunition not used by the US military to my knowledge), there is basically a big red "fire" button you push to confirm firing after the system locks on to and aims at a target. Of course, this is necessary because sometimes the system gets confused between 7.62x39 ammunition and the racking of the charging handles on our own troops' weapons.
Anyway, I suspect NATO would not OK an automatic acquisition and firing weapon without some kind of human interaction.

 

[Benm]

My idea exactly.

The rammifications of a mistake would just be too great: some kid plays with a laser pointer and gets shot to bits by a drone, just in front of a BBC camera crew as luck would have it. People will never trust those drones again.

 

[ossumguywill]

My idea exactly.

The rammifications of a mistake would just be too great: some kid plays with a laser pointer and gets shot to bits by a drone, just in front of a BBC camera crew as luck would have it. People will never trust those drones again.

Yep... the last time a military craft blew up an unmarked van helping an injured insurgent while carrying what looked like weapons, it turned out to be a new van full of news reporters and kids :wtf: (at least according to the media). Now, considering all the press that got, imagine if an automated machine had done the same thing. Instant media massacre of drone research programs.

 

[Toke]

I would go for the human interaction too, but would still be careful about where I pointed a laser.
Great idea with the microwave oven.

 

[spokanedavid]

i wrote a really long post but then after reading it i thought it sounded crazy. So i deleted it all . i will just say that after a 50mw green laser hit an amazing light that was traveling unlike anything i have ever seen for at least 10 min prior to the laser even showing up , this amazing light stayed around and seemed to play with the laser like for about another 25-45 min and them after a couple of flashes it was gone. It was more frightening than amazing that night i could not sleep,nor could a friend that was there who had the laser. I could only imagine what would happen if you pissed off anything that moved like that in the sky. please don't -rep me i am really not crazy. Use lasers carefully.