Directed Energy Weapons Repository

[A_Mysterious_Stranger]

So, yeah.  I wasn't sure where to put this but @Sturgeon was kind enough to suggest it go in the Ballistics Science forum (months ago, I've been busy with stuff) so this is where it sits.   It's not exactly 'ballistics' per se, but its still science-related and relevant and interesting because it's really, really hard to find some good technical documents that isn't science fiction nerd speculation.

 

You can actually find a surprising amount of that stuff on dtic, and I've always had a fascination since I was a kid with the old SDI program (borrowed tons of library books about lasers and particle beams too.) 

 

There are, however, a couple really good ones I've discovered, although both are really old.  There are lots of other more specialized and 'misc' documents on dtic which I may or may not post in the future depending on time or interest.

 

The first (and more recent) is a book called 'The Effects of Directed Energy Weapons' by Philip E. Nielsen:

 

The Effects of Directed Energy Weapons

 

Oddly it still seems to be in circulation according to Amazon (odd given its up for free on DTIC) which makes you wonder how legit that is but.. eh.   

 

The other one is much older (80s, meaning its SDI era) but it's also interesting and detailed because it originated with an AP study group on DEWs as part of the larger SDI effort I believe.   And it's quite interesting because it shares similar ideas with EDEW above: 

 

Report to the American Physical Soceity of the study group on science and technology of directed energy weapons.
 

 

So yeah, the biggest and best sources for such I've run across.  If I find any more (or if anyone else finds them) they can post them here too in preparation for World War 3 or the Martian Invasion.

 

The last one is more laser-focused, but still about DEWs (it's actually the source that lead me to my second source) and also comes from DTIC:

Directed Energy Weapons on the Battlefield: A New Vision for 2025

[roguetechie]

https://patents.google.com/patent/US7206257

 

Acoustic remote cavitation...

 

Fuck sharks with lasers, i want this.

[Toxn]

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacegunconvent.php

Read the whole thing because it's gold, but go to 'laser cannon' for the laser stuff.

 

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sidearmenergy.php

Laser sidearms.

[A_Mysterious_Stranger]

8 hours ago, Toxn said:

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacegunconvent.php

Read the whole thing because it's gold, but go to 'laser cannon' for the laser stuff.

 

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sidearmenergy.php

Laser sidearms.

 

Yeah, I thought about Atomic Rockets but was unsure if that would be okay to post.  It's a good site but it's like a wiki.   It's a dumping ground for diverse opinions culled from across the internet with little or no peer review.  So you have to take it with a grain of salt.   The arguments about what qualifies as 'realistic' science fiction suffer from the same problem of trying to predict the future of warfare:  We suck at reading future with accuracy, and many people color the matter with their preconceived ideas. 

 

If we mention AR, I can mention Luke Campbell's  'How to Build a Laser Death Ray' site.  He's one of the most prolific guys on laser weapons (including laser small arms).   Much of the work has been for personal (game-related) reasons, but it's been very interesting to read his work and I consider him to be as good as the sources I linked to above because of the depth of research he's done. 

[Toxn]

6 minutes ago, A_Mysterious_Stranger said:

 

Yeah, I thought about Atomic Rockets but was unsure if that would be okay to post.  It's a good site but it's like a wiki.   It's a dumping ground for diverse opinions culled from across the internet with little or no peer review.  So you have to take it with a grain of salt.   The arguments about what qualifies as 'realistic' science fiction suffer from the same problem of trying to predict the future of warfare:  We suck at reading future with accuracy, and many people color the matter with their preconceived ideas. 

 

If we mention AR, I can mention Luke Campbell's  'How to Build a Laser Death Ray' site.  He's one of the most prolific guys on laser weapons (including laser small arms).   Much of the work has been for personal (game-related) reasons, but it's been very interesting to read his work and I consider him to be as good as the sources I linked to above because of the depth of research he's done. 

We'll leave it to the admins, but for my money atomic rockets is great as an introduction to a fairly arcane field.

 

Ironically; I relied on it (and Luke Campbell's site) for my game-related stuff.

[A_Mysterious_Stranger]

12 minutes ago, Toxn said:

We'll leave it to the admins, but for my money atomic rockets is great as an introduction to a fairly arcane field.

 

Ironically; I relied on it (and Luke Campbell's site) for my game-related stuff.

 

Oh sure.   That's also why it's like a wiki:  as a starting point for research it's great because it can consolidate alot of information into an easy-to-access place.  It's just the time needed to sift through it to determine how much of it may or may not be accurate that can be problematic.

 

Some of the info can be a bit dated tho. Some of the Schilling stuff the energy sidearms page you linked to uses is also decades old Usenet posts lol. 

 

If you're interested in more of Luke's recent stuff you should look up his game stuff.  He improved some of his ideas from the Laser Death Ray site:  here's his home page  you can access Vergeworlds and his GURPS house rules there. 

 

As an attempt to be more informative I'll also post some info for the Solid State Heat Capacity Laser.  It's still CW I believe as opposed to pulse lasers (repetitive or otherwise) but it's interesting because it seems to be the closest we've gotten so far to a true 'Luke Campbell' style laser (It's close to his newer 'pulse laser' idea though, which you'll find mentioned on his Vergeworlds/GURPs rules)

 

https://lasers.llnl.gov/science/photon-science/directed-energy/sshcl

 

https://e-reports-ext.llnl.gov/pdf/245418.pdf

 

https://e-reports-ext.llnl.gov/pdf/241387.pdf

 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/244988141_Solid-State_Laser_High-Energy_Laser

 

https://str.llnl.gov/str/April06/pdfs/04_06.2.pdf

[Toxn]

So a completely frivolous example, but I was quite pleased to run the numbers on optically-pumped lasers and realise that your average solar-thermal tower setup could conceivably be converted into a megawatt-class laser.

 

I feel like this would be a form of solar power that everyone could get behind.

[LostCosmonaut]

6 hours ago, Toxn said:

So a completely frivolous example, but I was quite pleased to run the numbers on optically-pumped lasers and realise that your average solar-thermal tower setup could conceivably be converted into a megawatt-class laser.

 

 

 

Solar power: now with even more bird death!

 

Actual content; A Review of Nuclear-Pumped Lasers and Applications (Asteroid Deflection)