High power gamma lasers have applications far outside of military...
... for instance: I suspect they'd be pretty decent for transportation of power from orbital systems to land-based receivers and vice versa. They'd also probably be a lot more stable for long distance "narrow" communications over great (interplanetary) distance.
and of course they're also probably highly useful in making another breakthrough in fusion power generation. (I could be full of it in any of this - but it's all cool!)
Well a M-AM bomb would essentially be a very clean "enhanced radiation weapon" like a neutron bomb...but without the neutron activation residual radiation. Its more like frying everyone with hard gamma rays. Though IIRC, a lot of the heat and blast effects of a nuclear weapon come from the gamma rays and x-rays being absorbed by the atmosphere and conversion to heat...
Anyway...gamma ray lasers....considering how destructive X-Ray lasers were supposed to be...gamma ray lasers would be even more so.
:D
I don't think gamma rays would make a good transmission medium, they get absorbed by the atmosphere. This is why gamma-ray astronomy had to wait for orbital observatories. The mechanism proposed in the 1970s with microwave transmission is more effective, though for some uses (such as powering individual vehicles), optical lasers may be better. For one thing, microwaves convert directly to electricity in an antenna...
That's how nuclear power started out, right? Though I doubt it will propel us anything like it does in Star Trek(We need more di-lithium crystals, Captain!). But, since it's predicted to have an at or near a 100% energy conversion rate, it'd certainly be the most efficient propellant we could use.
Unless they do ever perfect the whole "space-folding" thing...
well by definition, M-AM reactions convert 100 percent of the matter to energy. Trapping and using all that energy is a different story.
As for real-life M-AM propulsion, the likely use would be a photon-rocket...something like a massive gamma-ray flashlight using lightspeed exhaust (photons) to enable relativistic travel (assuming you can sweep the interstellar debris and medium away from the ship, otherwise, its gonna both destroy the ship and fry the crew with essentially hard cosmic-radiation...)
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... for instance: I suspect they'd be pretty decent for transportation of power from orbital systems to land-based receivers and vice versa.
They'd also probably be a lot more stable for long distance "narrow" communications over great (interplanetary) distance.
and of course they're also probably highly useful in making another breakthrough in fusion power generation.
(I could be full of it in any of this - but it's all cool!)
Reply
Anyway...gamma ray lasers....considering how destructive X-Ray lasers were supposed to be...gamma ray lasers would be even more so.
:D
I don't think gamma rays would make a good transmission medium, they get absorbed by the atmosphere. This is why gamma-ray astronomy had to wait for orbital observatories. The mechanism proposed in the 1970s with microwave transmission is more effective, though for some uses (such as powering individual vehicles), optical lasers may be better. For one thing, microwaves convert directly to electricity in an antenna...
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Frightening.
Point. And I'd forgotten the microwave issues.
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...and the balding man with the deep British accent pointed his finger towards the viewscreen and said "Engage!"
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Unless they do ever perfect the whole "space-folding" thing...
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As for real-life M-AM propulsion, the likely use would be a photon-rocket...something like a massive gamma-ray flashlight using lightspeed exhaust (photons) to enable relativistic travel (assuming you can sweep the interstellar debris and medium away from the ship, otherwise, its gonna both destroy the ship and fry the crew with essentially hard cosmic-radiation...)
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