My theory about guns in Firefly
POSTED BY: Ringwraith
UPDATED: Thursday, January 2, 2003 01:21
VIEWED: 41138
PAGE 14 of 15
Quote:
Originally posted by xenobob:
Here's some more info about lasers for ya:
Weather gets in their way. All lasers have limited ranges in an atmosphere.
Smoke and fog will block them, and rain or snow will degrade them.
I assume that dust would also block them? This sounds like a pretty good reason for why they don't have lasers on these dusty, westerny (and smoggy in the industrial towns?) outer worlds.
Quote:
Some frequencies of light cannot penetrate atmospheres at all.
These terraformed worlds might not all have the same atmospheric content. Earth's atmosphere is 21 percent oxygen, 78 percent nitrogen, and the rest is argon, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, ozone, methane, helium, neon, krypton, xenon, etc. (I just now looked it up, obviously.) Might not different terraformed worlds have different mixes/concentrations of gasses, as long as it was breathable? So perhaps a laser that worked on one planet might not work on another?
Again, I'm way in over my head on technical matters.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Enderspawn:
WHoops! I meant the OTHER movie with pulse rifles...looks like I dropped the ball there.
Heh. Yeah, the amount of useless knowledge I've aquired in the past few years alone outshines even John Doe...
Plus, I like movie guns.
Like the ones in Soldier I didn't like the movie itself, but the guns were cool. Took me forever to figure out that was just an AK-47.
Did you know the Volkswagen bug was Hitler's idea?
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You speak about a power system being necessary for light or optic weapons. If you took a magnifying lens and placed it between the sun and your hand what happens? Hell just stand in the sunlight long enough and you will be burned. You would probably be very surprised concerning what hand weapons exist at this time. Sp Ops have devices that seem far ahead of their time.
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Quote:
Originally posted by whatnow:
You speak about a power system being necessary for light or optic weapons. If you took a magnifying lens and placed it between the sun and your hand what happens?
If you haven't noticed a star isn't a very portable power supply. Currently, to get decent amounts of power, we need some pretty large generators. Then it doesn't matter how much you fire the system, once or a hundred times the power supply remains the same size. Ammo has the advantage of being carried to fit the mission. Base load, US Army, 7 magazines x 30 rounds plus a hundred rounds in bandoliers. 310 total, plus four grenades. For specific missions load can be adjusted. The current projectile interception system has two large vehicles, minimum, one for power production the other for the weapon and sensors.
Jeff
Who notes batteries are getting better.
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There is one possibility... Perhaps... that might explain how to have a multiple shot laser in a portable unit.
Flash-bulbs. Ultra powerful ones... In the early days of lasers, when they were being developed, rather than using electricity to excite the emitter element, they used the sequenced detonation of flash-bulbs...
Now, what if you could load the guns with micro-flares? Some tiny charges of a futuristic bright-burning substance... They might be able to stimulate a sufficient pulse from the emitter to burn someone.
Twelve spheres of unendurable brightness spalled the velvety blackness of space.
The silence on Lester Tourville's flag bridge was absolute
And then the spell was broken as Shannon Foraker looked up from her console from where she had just sent a seemingly innocent command to the main computers of State Security's finest Superdreadnoughts.
"Oops." She said.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Mark:
There is one possibility... Perhaps... that might explain how to have a multiple shot laser in a portable unit.
Flash-bulbs. Ultra powerful ones... In the early days of lasers, when they were being developed, rather than using electricity to excite the emitter element, they used the sequenced detonation of flash-bulbs.
Sounds like the Hammer's Slammer's Universe
Jeff
Who should read better material.
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I haven't reall read much of the Hammer's Slammers stories, but I've been meaning to. How does it sound like that tech? I think the guy who wrote those stories (David Drake) was in Vietman but maybe he encountered flash-bulb lasers later in life?
Twelve spheres of unendurable brightness spalled the velvety blackness of space.
The silence on Lester Tourville's flag bridge was absolute
And then the spell was broken as Shannon Foraker looked up from her console from where she had just sent a seemingly innocent command to the main computers of State Security's finest Superdreadnoughts.
"Oops." She said.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Mark:
I think the guy who wrote those stories (David Drake) was in Vietman but maybe he encountered flash-bulb lasers later in life?
In the HS Universe Olin Corp. developed a way to exploit a natural phenomenon. Plastic disks with certain materials are exposed to an energy flash in a magnetic field and you get a small, directional nuclear bomb.
As for "flash bulb" lasers, the idea has been around for years. Problem is, the flash bulb is a nuclear explosion.
Jeff
Who prefers smaller, controlled detonations.
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Quote:
As for "flash bulb" lasers, the idea has been around for years. Problem is, the flash bulb is a nuclear explosion.
Yes, bomb-pumped X-Ray lasers are old hat from the Star-Wars program... But I'm not talking about anything that major... I'm talking about miniaturising the elements of an old flash-initiated laser. this certainly does not require a nuke!
Twelve spheres of unendurable brightness spalled the velvety blackness of space.
The silence on Lester Tourville's flag bridge was absolute
And then the spell was broken as Shannon Foraker looked up from her console from where she had just sent a seemingly innocent command to the main computers of State Security's finest Superdreadnoughts.
"Oops." She said.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Mark:
[BI'm talking about miniaturising the elements of an old flash-initiated laser. this certainly does not require a nuke!
I suspect the energy would better be used to launch a projectile, rather than initiate a laser pulse. The interface would eat up much of the energy.
Jeff
Who suspects kinetic energy weapons will be around a long time.
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