Japan Fires The World's Most Powerful Laser

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Japan has just test fired the world's most powerful laser. No one is really sure what the laser was tested on but the article does include a handy animated GIF of the Death Star blowing up Alderaan for reference. ;)

Researchers at Osaka University are claiming to have fired the most powerful laser in the world. The 2-petawatt (two quadrillion watt) pulse lasted just one picosecond (a trillionth of a second). For a rough comparison, in 2013, a 50 kilowatt (50,000 watt) laser shot down a drone two kilometers away.
 
soooo, I guess the worlds most powerful laser is looking for a job?
 
Article had no useful or interesting information on it, not that I was surprised after seeing an animated gif of the deathstar from the article writer...
 
Found their target

popcornhouse.jpg
 
I dunno...something about a giant reflex cannon and a bunch of zentradi invaders...who knows anymore because I just wanna see what happens with Rick Hunter's love triangle.
 
I skimmed that whole article and couldn't find what the purpose of the laser was.
 
Advil said:
I skimmed that whole article and couldn't find what the purpose of the laser was.
Click to expand...

It will be used against targets that are:

1 - Not reflective.
2 - Made of materials that can't dissipate heat quickly.
3 - Are willing to continue to hold still after the smoke starts.

A little reflectivity alone drives the power requirements of a laser up by ten fold to get the reflective layer to fail (IF it's thin enough). This is billions of dollars (or yen, pick a currency) being spent on weapons that won't ever really have much practical use.

Smart munitions are a smarter way to spend research dollars. Beam weapons will require enormous research into energy sources that aren't oil, and we've already ruled out researching anything that isn't oil. It makes lobbyists sad when people do that.
 
^ they have to start somewhere when working with beam power of this magnitude. The amount of info they have gleaned from current 1-picosecond shots will undoubtedly lead to overcoming any possible limitations of firing it for a longer period of time in the future.
 
DejaWiz said:
^ they have to start somewhere when working with beam power of this magnitude. The amount of info they have gleaned from current 1-picosecond shots will undoubtedly lead to overcoming any possible limitations of firing it for a longer period of time in the future.
Click to expand...

The research has to start in power generation though. You don't make a space ship and then worry about propulsion later. This is a press conference "weapon" and that's all it is. Quite frankly, once that kind of power can be generated you can build an electromagnetic rail gun that can fling multi-tonne objects at a few thousand meters per second. Or smaller objects at speed of tens of thousand of meters per second. A laser is reduced to a really fancy cigarette lighter in comparison, at best, and only if the cigarette is held still and not behind anything with high density.
 
I wonder how powerful a laser needs to be for a "normal mirror" to shatter and not just reflect. Or is it impossible? I know its light but there's also power/heat no?
(I know nothing about lasers btw)
 
Twisted Kidney said:
It will be used against targets that are:

1 - Not reflective.
2 - Made of materials that can't dissipate heat quickly.
3 - Are willing to continue to hold still after the smoke starts.

A little reflectivity alone drives the power requirements of a laser up by ten fold to get the reflective layer to fail (IF it's thin enough). This is billions of dollars (or yen, pick a currency) being spent on weapons that won't ever really have much practical use.

Smart munitions are a smarter way to spend research dollars. Beam weapons will require enormous research into energy sources that aren't oil, and we've already ruled out researching anything that isn't oil. It makes lobbyists sad when people do that.
Click to expand...

They are probably moving in this direction> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YAL-1
 
Twisted Kidney said:
The research has to start in power generation though. You don't make a space ship and then worry about propulsion later. This is a press conference "weapon" and that's all it is. Quite frankly, once that kind of power can be generated you can build an electromagnetic rail gun that can fling multi-tonne objects at a few thousand meters per second. Or smaller objects at speed of tens of thousand of meters per second. A laser is reduced to a really fancy cigarette lighter in comparison, at best, and only if the cigarette is held still and not behind anything with high density.
Click to expand...

As with the advances to make possible cheap and readily available hand-held laser pointers that blossomed out of the technology and information gained from the first lasers in the 1960's, give this one some time to mature, as well.
 
Twisted Kidney said:
It will be used against targets that are:

1 - Not reflective.
2 - Made of materials that can't dissipate heat quickly.
3 - Are willing to continue to hold still after the smoke starts.

A little reflectivity alone drives the power requirements of a laser up by ten fold to get the reflective layer to fail (IF it's thin enough). This is billions of dollars (or yen, pick a currency) being spent on weapons that won't ever really have much practical use.

Smart munitions are a smarter way to spend research dollars. Beam weapons will require enormous research into energy sources that aren't oil, and we've already ruled out researching anything that isn't oil. It makes lobbyists sad when people do that.
Click to expand...

Or you could understand that a laser that occupies a building plus worth of space isn't going to be used as a weapon. Probably more to do with fusion ignition and other more useful scientific things than trying to blow shit up.
 
Would that impart the same energy to the target as a 2,000W laser fired for one second? It doesn't sound as impressive then, but I imagine delivering that amount of peak power for any amount of time isn't easy, and of course the dynamics of being subjected to it wouldn't be so simple. I mean, I guess lying under 100lbs of bricks for 100 seconds sure isn't the same as being under 1,000,000lbs of bricks for 1/100 of a second!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top