Post by Machina Haruspex on Dec 17, 2007 16:30:18 GMT -5
Diode Lasers
These can be very small, and use a diode to stimulate light emission from a semiconducting substrate One common use of semiconductor lasers is for smaller weapons for use in an atmosphere or vaccum. These use manufactured optical resonators to generate a beam -as distinct from "natural" resonators such as the fluorescing atoms used in modern solid state lasers phase-locked semiconductor (or diode) lasers..
By phase locking the beam by means of a phase-conjugate "mirror", very high quality beams can be generated. More advanced systems use quantum wells or quantum dots to replace the semiconductor junction lasing medium. Lasers of this type often operate in the near IR or visible part of the spectrum and have high efficiencies – the most advanced forms can be more than 90% efficient at converting energy input into light.
Proton Beam Accelerator
PBA's are used for combat in vacuum. Individual protons are accelerated to ultra-relativistic velocities. As the beam exits the accelerator, it is neutralized by injecting an electron beam to cancel the charges. This prevents self repulsion from defocussing the beam and keeps the beam from veering in ambient magnetic fields.
The primary limit to the range of a proton beam is the thermal velocity of the protons. Neutralization of the beam unavoidably heats the beam due to the energy of recombination with the electrons. After exiting the accelerator, they begin to drift apart at roughly 15 km/s. The higher the proton energy, the farther the travel in the time it takes the beam to disperse.
Proton beams are typically employed in craft designed for combat in planetary orbit, and find use in blockades and operations to achieve orbital superiority prior to a ground assault. Proton beams can be steered with magnets prior to neutralization. In addition, the beam can be emitted from several ports along the ring diameter, allowing rapid retargeting.
The relativistic protons in these beams can be extremely penetrating, typically punching through a meter or so of solid or liquid matter before disintegrating into a shower of radiation, which itself can penetrate many more meters of solid or liquid matter. These "cascade" radiation showers produce an extremely high radiation environment which will sterilize the area of all biological life and destroy unhardened electronics. The only defense against a proton beam is thick layers of inert shielding, or using only radiation hardened control systems. Proton rich shielding is most effective on a per-mass basis.
Hellbore Array
An advanced plasma weapon firing a bolt of monopole contained plasma at near fusion temperatures. An adaptive high energy laser guides the bolt through atmospheres, and via an advanced application of the ponderamotive effect, compresses the monopole contained bolt to a critical density at the desired range.
At critical density, monopole-catalyzed fusion occurs, resulting in rapid release of the mass-energy in the plasma. In atmosphere, primary energy release is thermonuclear-equivalent shock wave and heat release, with a secondary laser impact. In vacuum, energy release is soft x-rays, with secondary laser impact.
Some versions add trace amounts of elements in the plasma or monopoles to generate specific effects (e.g. neutron or EMP production), similar to older style so-called "enhanced nuclear weapons".
Plasma
Plasma weaponry becomes practical with the advent of controlled nuclear fusion, and is distinguished from other high energy weapons by the use of fusion-grade fuel.
Although it packs tremendous punch in thermal and kinetic energy, the range of plasma weaponry is typically quite limited due to strong dispersal tendencies. In atmosphere, adaptive high energy lasers are required to generate a path and prevent energy dispersal along the flight path. Even so, electrostatic or reactive defenses can typically scatter the plasma envelope, limiting use to softer targets.
Primary energy release comes from megajoules of thermal and kinetic energy from contact with the plasma, with secondary laser impact and electrostatic discharges. Against soft targets, the tremendous heat transfer generates steam explosion of tissues and large electrostatic discharges in superconducting circuitry.
Breakthroughs in magnetic bottle technology permit the introduction of fusion weapons, which fire a bolt of plasma that undergoes thermonuclear fusion in-flight. This enormously amplifies the energy density, at the cost of higher energy requirements (both the input energy and firing velocity must be increased in order to prevent the bolt from prematurely detonating), and fusion weapons begin to replace other high energy weapons as the primary form of direct damage fire. At this point, fusion weapons technology mimics early development of kinetic weaponry, with the magnetic field configuration acting as the shell, and the fusing-plasma content acting as the warhead. Various combinations are developed for armor and field-penetration, plasma dispersion, and drive laser configuration.
Fusion weapons have the same energy release mechanisms as previous plasma weapons, but at orders of magnitude larger in scale.
The final advance in plasma weaponry comes with the use of magnetic monopoles. This enhances both the strength and compactness of the plasma magnetic envelope and the efficiency of the fusion process via the use of monopole catalyzed fusion. An advanced application of the ponderamotive effect compresses the monopole contained bolt to a critical density at the desired range.
At critical density, monopole-catalyzed fusion occurs, resulting in rapid release of the mass-energy in the plasma.
In atmosphere, primary energy release is thermonuclear-equivalent shock wave and heat release, with a secondary laser impact.
In vacuum, energy release is soft x-rays, with secondary laser impact.
Some versions add trace amounts of elements in the plasma or monopoles to generate specific effects (e.g. neutron or EMP production), similar to older style so-called "enhanced nuclear weapons".
Monopole-catalyzed fusion weapons have energy yields in the fractional kiloton to multi-megaton range
Railgun
A ship or vehicular mounted kinetic weapon that uses magnetic fields to accelerate a shell at very high velocity (in some cases relativistic).
Often employed in batteries in capital ships and starfortresses, which have sufficiently power reactors to provide a power source. Small ship, fighter, vehicular, mecha, and handheld versions have less velocity and may also require an additional power source.
Sliver Cannons/Mass Drivers
Relativistic weapons system consisting of dense projectiles. Used in interstellar warfare for extreme planetary bombardment.
The launch cannon has a powerful drive system and can accelerate to near light speed fairly quickly. Upon arrival in the target star system the launch cannon orients itself to its target(s) and releases its payload of projectiles. Each projectile is little more than a dense block of mass with a minimal amat maneuvering system for terminal course corrections.
Upon impact each projectile releases its accumulated relativistic mass in a huge explosion. At 99.9% of light speed, an RKKS projectile has a gamma of 22.4, and each proton has an energy of about 21 GeV, each electron 11 MeV. After penetrating a sectional density of about 0.7 ton/m^2, each proton or neutron in the spacecraft will have collided with a nucleus of a molecule in the air.
This will disintegrate any atomic nucleus involved and give a spray of hadrons and mesons. Since the atmosphere of an Earth-like world holds about 10 tons per square meter of surface area, no part of the projectile can be expected to reach the ground un-disintegrated.
The protons, neutrons, and mesons produced will interact with air nuclei before they hit the ground, and the particles they produce will interact, and so on, until 10 tons/m^2 is reached. This about 14 interaction lengths, with each interaction dividing the energy of that hadron or meson amongst all the particles coming out of that collision. Since electronic losses alone will stop a 1 GeV proton within about 3 tons/m^2 (and the 1 GeV proton will participate in several nuclear interactions before this, thus dumping its energy even sooner), none of the hadrons or mesons produced in this collision will hit the ground.
Muons from charged pi-meson decays will hit the ground, this requires the pi-mesons to decay before they hit an air nucleus in order to produce muons. Neutral pi-mesons will decay almost immediately into high energy gamma rays, which will produce electromagnetic showers (a gamma ray is absorbed in producing a high energy electron and positron pair, which then produce more gamma rays as they slam into atoms, which produce more electrons and positrons). Some of the gammas from these showers
may also make it to the ground. In fact the proportion of primary radiation that will reach the ground from the 20 GeV initial proton and neutron energies will be very small, but a small proportion of a large number (the original kinetic energy of the projectile) is still significant.
The radiation that makes it through the air to the ground will be scattered over a footprint with a radius of several hundred meters. Anything within that footprint will suffer the effects of the radiation. Anything outside that footprint is likely safe from the primary radiation. This means that a RKKS projectile will dump most of its energy in the upper to middle stratosphere. This amounts to about 400,000 MT per kg. It takes about 1 MJ/m^2 of radiant flux to flash fabric to flame and cause third degree burns to exposed skin.
A saturation type attack of hundreds or thousands of microprojectiles can shred a space habitat cluster, or a single megascale structure.
Because a sizable energy signature is used to accelerate a RKKS, this makes them somewhat detectable during their early acceleration phase if they are launched fairly close to the target. Another detectable signature is the friction between the RKKS projectile and the interstellar medium, and in the final stages of approach, with the much denser interplanetary medium; this friction creates detectable gamma rays. But use of streamlining and a narrow cross-sectional area reduces this signature to a minimum.
A RKKS moving at .999c will arrive a fraction of a second behind its own light or gravitational radiation or any warning message sent about it. This makes it difficult for even the most powerful hyperturing to detect the incoming projectile, identify it, send instructions to its defensive systems, and have those systems lock on and destroy the projectile so completely that not enough debris will get through to cause massive damage.
Wormhole based detector systems, in which distant warning stations watch for incoming RKKS and communicate their data via communication wormholes can greatly alleviate this problem. The metric disturbance in the fabric of space-time caused by the movement of a large relativistic mass is sufficiently great to be detected by advanced sensors at a considerable distance. However, outside of the Inner Sphere or other archai protected systems, not many worlds have the resources to set up such a complex, expensive detector system on the off-chance that someone will attempt this type of attack.
These can be very small, and use a diode to stimulate light emission from a semiconducting substrate One common use of semiconductor lasers is for smaller weapons for use in an atmosphere or vaccum. These use manufactured optical resonators to generate a beam -as distinct from "natural" resonators such as the fluorescing atoms used in modern solid state lasers phase-locked semiconductor (or diode) lasers..
By phase locking the beam by means of a phase-conjugate "mirror", very high quality beams can be generated. More advanced systems use quantum wells or quantum dots to replace the semiconductor junction lasing medium. Lasers of this type often operate in the near IR or visible part of the spectrum and have high efficiencies – the most advanced forms can be more than 90% efficient at converting energy input into light.
Proton Beam Accelerator
PBA's are used for combat in vacuum. Individual protons are accelerated to ultra-relativistic velocities. As the beam exits the accelerator, it is neutralized by injecting an electron beam to cancel the charges. This prevents self repulsion from defocussing the beam and keeps the beam from veering in ambient magnetic fields.
The primary limit to the range of a proton beam is the thermal velocity of the protons. Neutralization of the beam unavoidably heats the beam due to the energy of recombination with the electrons. After exiting the accelerator, they begin to drift apart at roughly 15 km/s. The higher the proton energy, the farther the travel in the time it takes the beam to disperse.
Proton beams are typically employed in craft designed for combat in planetary orbit, and find use in blockades and operations to achieve orbital superiority prior to a ground assault. Proton beams can be steered with magnets prior to neutralization. In addition, the beam can be emitted from several ports along the ring diameter, allowing rapid retargeting.
The relativistic protons in these beams can be extremely penetrating, typically punching through a meter or so of solid or liquid matter before disintegrating into a shower of radiation, which itself can penetrate many more meters of solid or liquid matter. These "cascade" radiation showers produce an extremely high radiation environment which will sterilize the area of all biological life and destroy unhardened electronics. The only defense against a proton beam is thick layers of inert shielding, or using only radiation hardened control systems. Proton rich shielding is most effective on a per-mass basis.
Hellbore Array
An advanced plasma weapon firing a bolt of monopole contained plasma at near fusion temperatures. An adaptive high energy laser guides the bolt through atmospheres, and via an advanced application of the ponderamotive effect, compresses the monopole contained bolt to a critical density at the desired range.
At critical density, monopole-catalyzed fusion occurs, resulting in rapid release of the mass-energy in the plasma. In atmosphere, primary energy release is thermonuclear-equivalent shock wave and heat release, with a secondary laser impact. In vacuum, energy release is soft x-rays, with secondary laser impact.
Some versions add trace amounts of elements in the plasma or monopoles to generate specific effects (e.g. neutron or EMP production), similar to older style so-called "enhanced nuclear weapons".
Plasma
Plasma weaponry becomes practical with the advent of controlled nuclear fusion, and is distinguished from other high energy weapons by the use of fusion-grade fuel.
Although it packs tremendous punch in thermal and kinetic energy, the range of plasma weaponry is typically quite limited due to strong dispersal tendencies. In atmosphere, adaptive high energy lasers are required to generate a path and prevent energy dispersal along the flight path. Even so, electrostatic or reactive defenses can typically scatter the plasma envelope, limiting use to softer targets.
Primary energy release comes from megajoules of thermal and kinetic energy from contact with the plasma, with secondary laser impact and electrostatic discharges. Against soft targets, the tremendous heat transfer generates steam explosion of tissues and large electrostatic discharges in superconducting circuitry.
Breakthroughs in magnetic bottle technology permit the introduction of fusion weapons, which fire a bolt of plasma that undergoes thermonuclear fusion in-flight. This enormously amplifies the energy density, at the cost of higher energy requirements (both the input energy and firing velocity must be increased in order to prevent the bolt from prematurely detonating), and fusion weapons begin to replace other high energy weapons as the primary form of direct damage fire. At this point, fusion weapons technology mimics early development of kinetic weaponry, with the magnetic field configuration acting as the shell, and the fusing-plasma content acting as the warhead. Various combinations are developed for armor and field-penetration, plasma dispersion, and drive laser configuration.
Fusion weapons have the same energy release mechanisms as previous plasma weapons, but at orders of magnitude larger in scale.
The final advance in plasma weaponry comes with the use of magnetic monopoles. This enhances both the strength and compactness of the plasma magnetic envelope and the efficiency of the fusion process via the use of monopole catalyzed fusion. An advanced application of the ponderamotive effect compresses the monopole contained bolt to a critical density at the desired range.
At critical density, monopole-catalyzed fusion occurs, resulting in rapid release of the mass-energy in the plasma.
In atmosphere, primary energy release is thermonuclear-equivalent shock wave and heat release, with a secondary laser impact.
In vacuum, energy release is soft x-rays, with secondary laser impact.
Some versions add trace amounts of elements in the plasma or monopoles to generate specific effects (e.g. neutron or EMP production), similar to older style so-called "enhanced nuclear weapons".
Monopole-catalyzed fusion weapons have energy yields in the fractional kiloton to multi-megaton range
Railgun
A ship or vehicular mounted kinetic weapon that uses magnetic fields to accelerate a shell at very high velocity (in some cases relativistic).
Often employed in batteries in capital ships and starfortresses, which have sufficiently power reactors to provide a power source. Small ship, fighter, vehicular, mecha, and handheld versions have less velocity and may also require an additional power source.
Sliver Cannons/Mass Drivers
Relativistic weapons system consisting of dense projectiles. Used in interstellar warfare for extreme planetary bombardment.
The launch cannon has a powerful drive system and can accelerate to near light speed fairly quickly. Upon arrival in the target star system the launch cannon orients itself to its target(s) and releases its payload of projectiles. Each projectile is little more than a dense block of mass with a minimal amat maneuvering system for terminal course corrections.
Upon impact each projectile releases its accumulated relativistic mass in a huge explosion. At 99.9% of light speed, an RKKS projectile has a gamma of 22.4, and each proton has an energy of about 21 GeV, each electron 11 MeV. After penetrating a sectional density of about 0.7 ton/m^2, each proton or neutron in the spacecraft will have collided with a nucleus of a molecule in the air.
This will disintegrate any atomic nucleus involved and give a spray of hadrons and mesons. Since the atmosphere of an Earth-like world holds about 10 tons per square meter of surface area, no part of the projectile can be expected to reach the ground un-disintegrated.
The protons, neutrons, and mesons produced will interact with air nuclei before they hit the ground, and the particles they produce will interact, and so on, until 10 tons/m^2 is reached. This about 14 interaction lengths, with each interaction dividing the energy of that hadron or meson amongst all the particles coming out of that collision. Since electronic losses alone will stop a 1 GeV proton within about 3 tons/m^2 (and the 1 GeV proton will participate in several nuclear interactions before this, thus dumping its energy even sooner), none of the hadrons or mesons produced in this collision will hit the ground.
Muons from charged pi-meson decays will hit the ground, this requires the pi-mesons to decay before they hit an air nucleus in order to produce muons. Neutral pi-mesons will decay almost immediately into high energy gamma rays, which will produce electromagnetic showers (a gamma ray is absorbed in producing a high energy electron and positron pair, which then produce more gamma rays as they slam into atoms, which produce more electrons and positrons). Some of the gammas from these showers
may also make it to the ground. In fact the proportion of primary radiation that will reach the ground from the 20 GeV initial proton and neutron energies will be very small, but a small proportion of a large number (the original kinetic energy of the projectile) is still significant.
The radiation that makes it through the air to the ground will be scattered over a footprint with a radius of several hundred meters. Anything within that footprint will suffer the effects of the radiation. Anything outside that footprint is likely safe from the primary radiation. This means that a RKKS projectile will dump most of its energy in the upper to middle stratosphere. This amounts to about 400,000 MT per kg. It takes about 1 MJ/m^2 of radiant flux to flash fabric to flame and cause third degree burns to exposed skin.
A saturation type attack of hundreds or thousands of microprojectiles can shred a space habitat cluster, or a single megascale structure.
Because a sizable energy signature is used to accelerate a RKKS, this makes them somewhat detectable during their early acceleration phase if they are launched fairly close to the target. Another detectable signature is the friction between the RKKS projectile and the interstellar medium, and in the final stages of approach, with the much denser interplanetary medium; this friction creates detectable gamma rays. But use of streamlining and a narrow cross-sectional area reduces this signature to a minimum.
A RKKS moving at .999c will arrive a fraction of a second behind its own light or gravitational radiation or any warning message sent about it. This makes it difficult for even the most powerful hyperturing to detect the incoming projectile, identify it, send instructions to its defensive systems, and have those systems lock on and destroy the projectile so completely that not enough debris will get through to cause massive damage.
Wormhole based detector systems, in which distant warning stations watch for incoming RKKS and communicate their data via communication wormholes can greatly alleviate this problem. The metric disturbance in the fabric of space-time caused by the movement of a large relativistic mass is sufficiently great to be detected by advanced sensors at a considerable distance. However, outside of the Inner Sphere or other archai protected systems, not many worlds have the resources to set up such a complex, expensive detector system on the off-chance that someone will attempt this type of attack.