This has got potential... It's the world's first 2 megajoule laser.....it puts out 5 trillion watts. This was developed and tested in California. From the description, it may end up, honestly, realizing Reagan's dream.... But the stated goal for it is for energy. If they can couple it with a hydrogen fuel cell, it could create an efficient fusion reactor that would be the best green energy source ever known to mankind: http://gizmodo.com/5895276/america-fires-most-powerful-laser-in-history This is big people....and we did it right here. USA! USA!! USA!!!
We have had SDI (Star Wars) for over 20 years and it works perfectly fine. What liberals mocked with Death Star images has actually been a realty for decades. The U.S.A. is in virtually no danger from ICBM's. We can even detect which are the dummy warheads and which are real and target just the live fire.
Please elaborate...I am not aware..... Incidentally, I would love it if we built a Death Star that orbited the Earth. My intent was not to mock.
I am always in favor of greater military technological development. It is one of the few areas where I feel military spending is justified. If this technology can become economically viable for renewable energy purposes, lets have at it.
It's called politics. I would love for us to announce our SDI system. You do know we have already successfully shot lasers from ships, planes, and the ground? I assume you also know about physics and space not de-fracting a laser as it does in an atmosphere... it is MUCH more powerful in space. Also... ICBM is not our fear... suitcase, container, and cruise missiles are the issues. We should not be building new uranium based nuclear plants anymore. We should be pushing Thorium to Iran and the rest of the world. It is just molten salt, creates massive energy, and you cannot convert the program quickly to a weapons program. The plants are very similar.
I don't buy it that we have a fully functional SDI in active service. This kind of technology could lead to something like it, but I don't think we are there yet. In terms of what we have already done with lasers, most of it has also been in test phase. Regarding loose nukes and suitcase bombs, those would not be state actors and the source could be nearly anywhere on the planet. There is nothing special to indict Iran with in that regard.....especially if we are invulnerable to ICBMs because we already have an active SDI system (which would be even more logistically deployable in ISR).
I've said it before here and I'll say it again, the road to recovery and the next boom will both come from green energy.
Have at it. The technology is completely independent of who is president and would likely not be operable before Obama leaves office in 2016 anyway. That is unless the federal funding that allowed this discovery is yanked.....then progress toward this potential would likely come to a halt.
when someone develops a cheap catalyst for hydrogen fuel cells to replace the 2000 dollar a ounce platinum the energy problems will be over. That will be the magic battery that makes solar and wind viable sources of power. Every other day some scientist or the other makes a claim that he has discovered one but so far nothing has been brought to market.
Missle detection and neutralization from at sea platforms is the Aegis system. Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegis_Combat_System The Aegis system works at most at a theatre level, not a national nor global level. There is a limit. Airbourne capabilities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YAL-1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-satellite_weapon But all these systems are not integrated into one command and control system. The amount of data, the latency between the data centers, the amount of time to process trajectory data and prediction, let alone to load the data into a missle that has the speed to intercept the incoming is still too great a challenge. We can detect, and project trajectory paths, in a local area, but it isn't a global integrated system. Capabilities are limited.
