MIT Lincoln Lab spinout unveils new more powerful direct-diode laser

Whoa! :-)

a laser tank??? now that it has been said - it will probably happen... wow -- i think the world just pooped its pants a little

Haha you hit it right on el nose!

What about using it for line-of-sight power transfer? How about a laser based electrical grid that pulses power where and when its needed?

Soon enough it'll be on a soldiers back in the middle east. Imagine that connected to a targeting system how could you miss with light speed! I also imagine predator like shoulder fire pew pew lazors

I like where your head is at Socean. That would be a really neat system, and it seems pretty feasible with this kind of technology. Sucks to be the birds though. Try to land on that power line...

I dunno, a weapon without a huge bang and low per fire costs may not fly with the current US military.

Safecrackers rejoice!

One of the important things to realize about energy weapons is that once you rise above a certain energy density armor becomes irrelevant.

Soon enough it'll be on a soldiers back in the middle east. Imagine that connected to a targeting system how could you miss with light speed! I also imagine predator like shoulder fire pew pew lazors

How light could a 1000-watt-capable power supply be? Probably too heavy for a non-exoskeleton-assisted soldier to carry in battle. Maybe mounted onto a robot. Wow! "lasers in the jungle" James Coburn was right :)

One of the important things to realize about energy weapons is that once you rise above a certain energy density armor becomes irrelevant.

Hardly. Once others start tearing these apart, it won't be long until some kind of albedo armor is produced to counter it. Supply and demand; we wanted this and we got it. The pendulum will now swing the other way. I'll guarantee you won't get one of our Marines or Armored Cavalry officers to say this won't be countered, because they know better.

I used to restore knight's armor in a well known museum. In its day, the quality and protectiveness of this armor was unparalleled- until the crossbow bolt came along.

What a good idea to suggest that it might be useful for killing people that will bring research funds rolling in.

What a good idea to suggest that it might be useful for killing people that will bring research funds rolling in.

Anything that you see in the civilian arena of such strong potential use, is already well far advanced in the context of weapons systems.

There are lithium ion batteries user in remote controlled planes capable of delivering 1000 watt for minutes at a time.

Are you talking about the drones we use? They are not that small, but the latest generation of battery plus ultracapacitor could be light enough for ground troops. You might make mirrors for tanks but ground troops? Kind of unlikely you could protect them very well. 1000 watts sounds like a lot of power but it would depend on how long the laser has to be turned on to do damage. For instance, if it only needed to be on for a millisecond, then 1000 watts could be provided by a one watt battery, which would store the energy in a capacitor and discharge it all in one millisecond. Probably 1 millisecond would not produce much damage unless the power was closer to the megawatt level but that illustrates the effect. If it could do damage in 1/10th of a second, then a 10 watt battery could power such a device, but one shot every ten seconds. A 500 watt battery could do one shot per 2 seconds and so forth. A 10 kilowatt battery/ultracap supply could do 10 1 kw shots per second.

I'm sure there will be a lot of research on making such power supplies viable for ground troops, like advanced fuel cells using alcohol as fuel for instance. Eventually it might even make it to a laser rifle at a K mart near you!

The optics of such a device are of supreme importance, since you need to keep the beam as fine as possible at the target distance. Even if your laser rifle had a divergence of one arcsecond, might be possible if it had a 6 inch parabolic mirror, the stated size of 200 micron size beam would be more like 8 or 10 millimeters wide at one mile so the density per square micron would be way down, requiring a much longer time on target to do damage. I think the ship board lasers use a much larger mirror and have already demonstrated the ability to kill a boat motor several kilometers away but that was something more like a 100 kilowatt laser beam running continuously for several seconds, so a laser rifle would have a lot shorter range than a regular military rifle it would seem.

Yeah. Good luck holding that laser on target at 1000 meters. or 100 meters. Wasn't a laser that destroyed the dinosaurs. It was a large projectile. Good luck on getting that laser through ceramics quickly.

Such lasers do have a large military potential, but they also have a large communications potential.

How about use in hydrogen fusion? Multiple low energy consuming lasers with high outputs could perhaps deliver an energy gain from fusion systems.

I know what a spinoff company is, but what's a "spinout" company?

Cutting edge.

Another factor to consider is this: the laser may put out 1000 watts or so but the inefficiencies in the system would mean it probably takes at least 2000 watts to get that 1000 watt beam, that assumes a 50% power efficient laser. It could be 30 percent, in that case the power required would be closer to 3000 watts.

What about using it for line-of-sight power transfer? How about a laser based electrical grid that pulses power where and when its needed?

I wonder if that would be equivalent to power transfer via microwaves,which has been proposed as the means to deliver power from solar satellites to the ground.There would be inevitable losses with both systems.

Such lasers do have a large military potential, but they also have a large communications potential.

How about use in hydrogen fusion? Multiple low energy consuming lasers with high outputs could perhaps deliver an energy gain from fusion systems.

Are you referring to implosion fusion? Yes,perhaps this new laser would reduce the size of such a system..

Yes, I was thinking that more efficient lasers might tip the scales making implosion fusion practical.

Yes, I was thinking that more efficient lasers might tip the scales making implosion fusion practical.

And inertial confinement is probably going to produce a practical reactor sooner than a Tokamak type reactor.I recall a physicist describing the process of plasma confinement as being more difficult than confining Jello in a cage of rubber bands.

Cutting this big a piece of steel means it would be invaluable at a shipyard,or at a Caterpillar factory.

Another factor to consider is this: the laser may put out 1000 watts or so but the inefficiencies in the system would mean it probably takes at least 2000 watts to get that 1000 watt beam, that assumes a 50% power efficient laser. It could be 30 percent, in that case the power required would be closer to 3000 watts.

That's a LOT of waste heat!

Such lasers do have a large military potential, but they also have a large communications potential.

How about use in hydrogen fusion? Multiple low energy consuming lasers with high outputs could perhaps deliver an energy gain from fusion systems.

hey, look at that, a relevant comment from dogbert.

Been a while since I've seen one of those.

Such lasers do have a large military potential, but they also have a large communications potential.

How about use in hydrogen fusion? Multiple low energy consuming lasers with high outputs could perhaps deliver an energy gain from fusion systems.

hey, look at that, a relevant comment from dogbert.

Been a while since I've seen one of those.

Now girls,be nice,no fighting!

Who's fighting? I was pointing out that it was nice to hear something that both makes some sense and looks ahead from him, rather than some political crap.