I would like to make a comment about particle beam weapons. You only want a neutral beam in the vacuum of space. In the atmosphere you want a charged particle beam ...
Particle-beam weapon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A
particle-beam weapon uses a high-energy beam of atomic or subatomic particles to damage the target by disrupting its
atomic and/or
molecular structure. A particle-beam weapon is a type of
directed-energy weapon,
which directs energy in a particular and focused direction using
particles with negligible mass. Some particle-beam weapons are real and
have potential practical applications, e.g. as an anti-
ballistic missile defense system for the
United States and its
Strategic Defense Initiative. The vast majority, however, are
science fiction
and are among the most common weapon types of the genre. They have been
known by a myriad of names: phasers, particle accelerator guns, ion
cannons, proton beams, lightning rays,
ray guns etc.
The concept of particle-beam weapons comes from sound scientific
principles and experiments currently underway around the world. One
effective process to cause damage to or destroy a target is to simply
overheat it until it is no longer operational.
Particle accelerators are a well-developed technology used in scientific research for decades. They use
electromagnetic fields to accelerate and direct
charged particles along a predetermined path, and electrostatic “lenses” to focus these streams for collisions. The
Cathode Ray Tube in many televisions and computer monitors is a very simple type of
particle accelerator. More powerful versions include
tokamaks and
cyclotrons used in nuclear research. A particle-beam weapon is a weaponized version of this technology. It accelerates
charged particles
(in most cases electrons, positrons, protons, or ionized atoms, but
very advanced versions can use other particles) to near-light speed and
then shoots them at a target. These particles have tremendous
kinetic energy which they impart to matter in the target’s surface, inducing near-instantaneous and catastrophic superheating.
Beam generation
Charged particle beams diverge rapidly due to mutual repulsion, so
neutral particle beams are more commonly proposed. A
neutral-particle-beam weapon
ionizes hydrogen
gas by either stripping an electron off of each hydrogen atom, or by
allowing each hydrogen atom to capture an extra electron. When hydrogen
molecules gain electrons, they form
anions; when hydrogen molecules lose electrons, they form
cations; when hydrogen atoms lose their last electron they form
protons. A particle-beam weapon that accelerates anions uses a traveling wave type
particle accelerator.
In this kind of ion accelerator, the negative ions are released inside a
cylindrical ion acceleration chamber. This chamber has an electrode
with an alternating electric charge of up to 1,000,000,000 (
) volts inside it.
Stages:
- While the charge on the electrode is positive, the ions are
attracted to the negative charge on the electrode, and thus bunched
around it.
- The alternating voltage switches the charge to negative on the accelerating electrode.
- The negative charge electrostatically repels the negative ions and accelerates them to near the velocity of light.
- The resulting high energy beam of anions passes through a chamber filled with low pressure gas.
- There, collisions with the gas strip the extra electrons from the anions, and thus make the particle beam neutral.
- The particle beam proceeds straight to its target, and damages it by
running into it, and by disrupting the structure of the target with its
kinetic energy.
Cyclotron particle accelerators,
linear particle accelerators, and
Synchrotron particle accelerators can accelerate positively charged hydrogen ions until their velocity approaches the
speed of light, and each individual ion has a kinetic energy range of 100
MeV
to 1000 MeV or more. Then the resulting high energy protons can capture
electrons from electron emitter electrodes, and be thus electrically
neutralized. This creates an electrically neutral beam of high energy
hydrogen atoms, that can proceed in a straight line at near the speed of
light to smash into its target and damage it.
The pulsed particle beam emitted by such a weapon may contain 1
gigajoule of
kinetic energy
or more. The speed of a beam approaching that of light (299,792,458 m/s
in a vacuum) in combination with the energy created by the weapon would
negate any realistic means of defending a target against the beam.
Target hardening through shielding or materials selection would be
impractical or ineffective,
[1] especially if the beam could be maintained at full power and precisely focused on the target.
[2]
History
Tesla
Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-American electrical engineer and inventor known for his work in
alternating current and high-frequency-electricity technology, also claimed that he had developed an electricity-based "ray" weapon.
[3] The press called it a "
peace ray" or death ray.
[4][5]
Tesla's claims about the components of the weapon included:
[6][7]
- An apparatus for producing manifestations of energy in free air
instead of in a high vacuum as in the past. This, according to Tesla in
1934, was accomplished.
- A mechanism for generating tremendous electrical force. This, according to Tesla, was also accomplished.
- A means of intensifying and amplifying the force developed by the second mechanism.
- A new method for producing a tremendous electrical repelling force. This would be the projector, or gun, of the invention.
In 1937, Tesla composed a treatise entitled "
The Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-dispersive Energy through the Natural Media".
[8] This treatise is currently in the
Nikola Tesla Museum archive in
Belgrade. It described a weapon Tesla called a "
teleforce"
consisting of an open-ended vacuum tube with a gas jet seal that
allowed particles to exit, a method of charging particles to millions of
volts, and a method of creating and directing non-dispersive particle
streams (through
electrostatic repulsion).
[8]
Tesla worked on plans for a directed-energy weapon between the early
1900s until the time of his death. Records of his device indicate that
it was based on a narrow stream of atomic clusters of liquid
mercury or
tungsten accelerated via high voltage (by means akin to his
magnifying transformer). Tesla gave the following description concerning the
particle gun's operation:
| “ |
[The
nozzle would] send concentrated beams of particles through the free air,
of such tremendous energy that they will bring down a fleet of 10,000
enemy airplanes at a distance of 200 miles from a defending nation's
border and will cause armies to drop dead in their tracks.[9] |
” |
The weapon could be used against ground based infantry or for anti-aircraft purposes.
[10] Tesla tried to interest the
US War Department in the device.
[11] He also offered this invention to European countries.
[12] None of the governments purchased a contract to build the device.
Various theories persist regarding the nature of this device and the
whereabouts of Tesla's complete schematics for it. Immediately after his
death, his
personal effects were stolen and the room's safe opened. The FBI claims that it never found the schematics nor any prototype.
[citation needed]
Modern experiments
The U.S. Defense
Strategic Defense Initiative put into development the technology of a neutral particle beam to be used as a weapon in outer space.
[13] Neutral beam accelerator technology was developed at
Los Alamos National Laboratory. As part of the Beam Experiments Aboard Rocket (BEAR) project, a prototype hydrogen beam weapon was launched from
White Sands Missile Range
in July 1989 and successfully deployed into low Earth orbit. It was
operated successfully in space and after reentry was recovered intact.
In 2006 the weapon prototype was transferred from Los Alamos to the
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.
[14][15]
See also
References
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