• Question: do you think it would be possible (in the future)to have for example laser weapons like the ones featured in most sci-fi films.

    Asked by spartan117 to Mike, Pip, Tianfu, Tim, Tom on 23 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by rbgrhetkj, lordofdeadspace2.
    • Photo: Tim Stephens

      Tim Stephens answered on 23 Jun 2012:

      The US government has already started developing lasers a little bit like the ones in sci-fi films. They’ve got a giant laser mounted in the front of a jumbo jet that is designed to shoot down enemy missiles by heating them up until they burn. It’s not quite as spectacular as the ones in the movies since it apparently takes a few seconds with the laser shining on the missile for it to get hot enough to explode.

    • Photo: Tom Lister

      Tom Lister answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      There are already plenty of laser weapons. Most used to ‘dazzle’, like using laser pointers at helicopter pilots (I think the Chinese or Russian navy got in trouble for doing that a few years back).

      I think there are also some things around to detonate missiles, as a defence against them.

      Lasers, the way we produce them at the moment, are really inefficient, so it is very difficult to get a lot of energy out of them. I can just imagine the James Bond scene with our lasers, trying to cut through somebody – I think they would starve to death before you did much damage with the laser!

    • Photo: Philippa Bird

      Philippa Bird answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      Definitely.

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