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Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.

gisterme - 09:31pm Jan 30, 2002 EST (#11139 of 11145)

Here's a technical piece about multi-layer optics for x-ray wavelenghts...

http://www.esrf.fr/experiments/optics/multilayer/papers/revsci67.htm

Note the 1-micron upper limit for combined thickness of all the layers...note that the tuneable laser shown in the previous post...

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/fel_001023.html

...is said to be tuneable into the x-ray wavelenghts...

So based on the technical article one can see how difficult it would be to build a broadband multi-layer reflector able to handle very high energies witout vaporizing...those guys are only working with 200k eV! 1 eV is 1.6 x10^-19 Joules. 1 calorie is 4.184 Joules (a food caloie is 1000x that). One megawatt-second represents an energy expendiature about 1.003 x 10^6 Joules. Surely you see the problem with the reflective coatings at high energy, Robert...yes, even gold leaf. The 97% reflectivity is only at very low energies and within a specific band of wavelengths. That's why gold looks a bit yellow.

I'll bet that the mirrors used to direct these high energy lasers have some very fancy cooling systems, probably cryogenic.

mazza9 - 10:59pm Jan 30, 2002 EST (#11140 of 11145)
Louis Mazza

Excellent posts Gisterme!

In an earlier posts I suggested that a laser has a kinetic kill component. I couldn't find the picture of the Titan missile body being collapsed by the laser strike but there is another example. The Dept of Energy has constructed a laser test facility which is used to manage and maintain our nuclear stockpile. At one time this facility was called Shiva (after the Hindu goddess referred to by Oppenheimer). The concept was to focus multiple beams at a center point. A glass bead containing deuterium would be dropped from above the center point. When it reached the center point the lasers would fire and compress,(the kinetic component of the laser beams), and then heat the deuterium causing it to fuse. Thus the high G and high heat that exists at the stellar core would be duplicated and the fusion process would produce electricity. The fuel beads would be dropped in a continuous stream. The trick was to create more energy in the fusion reaction then is needed to power the lasers, (and the rest of the system). When energy breakeven was surpassed the system would deliver a net output of energy to the power grid.

To reiterate, lasers work.

LouMazza

lchic - 01:11am Jan 31, 2002 EST (#11141 of 11145)

How many minutes have to tick by for $1m to go into the defence buget ______ ?

Which cash_cows benefit ?

If those elected by the people are barred from MD enlightenment - why so?

It's said that Nukes are totally unacceptable and therefore unusable. If this is so, then, what sort of example is the US setting the world.

If 'Star Wars' is ok for the USA nation, then, every other nation in the world will want an equivalent. Were this to happen - how safe would Americans feel?

lchic - 01:13am Jan 31, 2002 EST (#11142 of 11145)

Stealing from Peter to pay Paul?

Is the current financing round of military expansionist spending actually being financed from the reserves that were allocated as future needs for the ageing population?

lchic - 02:05am Jan 31, 2002 EST (#11143 of 11145)

The Enron CASH COW syone "The Collapse of Enron-- Moderated" 1/31/02 2:01am

mazza9 - 10:04am Jan 31, 2002 EST (#11144 of 11145)
Louis Mazza

lchic:

$723,000/min at $380 billion.

American Business which pays American workers

Some Reps have demonstrated an inability to keep secrets.

the best example since we own the moral highground.

They ain't smart enough, wealthy enough or moral enough.

Re: aging population. No.

Enron is off point. Oh, but I forgot, you don't follow the rules.

LouMazza

robertread1 - 10:09am Jan 31, 2002 EST (#11145 of 11145)

An analogy... I see missile defense as a net over the European Greenhouse to catch stones that would otherwise shatter the US Greenhouse' windows.

You also want to put a man in the European greenhouse just to make sure it catches all the stones. 'Tis a bit cheeky, No?

Is MD not a first strike weapon, like the stealth bomber is? Why do MD supporters think this will not be de-stabilising?

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