japan shoots self with space based laser, a new era of warfare planned assassinations is upon us or

Well the aricle is rather clear at what happened, Japan a by all means peaceful and non militaristic country for the past 50 years. Well up until recently in the past 3 years with the start of the Iraq war has used a space based weapon, call it what you want peaceful science experiment, bottem line is that it has huge implications on the security structure of the planet.

Just for the record I am a huge huge fan of the Japanese culture and industry, but they have basicly started off a new space weapons race, well maybe nostarted but definitly pushed.

I dont know if this is necessarily the worst kind of race, since hopefully it can lead to the booming worldwide of the space industry, meaning tourism exploration and mining I would personally give my life to be able to see the planet floating from space a sight witnessed by a fewer number than we have billionaires. Anyway heres the article

double edged sword

[edit on 8-4-2006 by Desolate Cancer]

?!? The laser was for communication purposes ?!?





[edit on 8/4/06 by Shakeyjc]

the beam could just as easily be used for military reasons, they say it was for comm purposes not doubting that this trial, but they have established the principle, my question is what would the beam do if turned up in power and shot towards a person or something not designed to recieve it

ummmm...yeeeaaahh.

This was for communication only...not an offensive weapon. And no, they wont be able to just turn up the power and fry another satellite, the laser wasn't designed for that...not to mention the power source is solar cells, so if you talking about killing someone from space...(lol), never gonna happen, you could hurt a fly.

I have no doubt that in a next decade (or two) that space based lasers will be in orbit, but thats still a ways off. The satellite would likely be nuclear powered, and the laser would have to be solid state, and not chemical.

lasers are VERY common, i'm using one now...and my mousepad is still hole-less.

Lasrers are simply not powerful enough for destructive purpose from ground to orbit or the other way around due to attenuation in the atmosphere. If you stupidly tried to use a high power laser for that purposes, at best you'd have a really expensive laser pointer.

[edit on 11-4-2006 by Simon666]

Very cool Simon, i had no idea that lasers couldnt be used for destructive purposes ground to orbit or orbit to ground BC of the atmosphere.

Does it matter if the laser is solid state or liquid/gas, I mean what type of laser it is, would that make a difference.

I perhaps did jump to conclusions with my post but I just felt that with all the more dominant countries vying competitively for space accomplishments, and with america having the war mongering administration it does that other countries would start to place weapons into orbit very soon, I mean its easy as placing a satelite so if you could do that then why not a weapon.

It'll be funny to see the first attempts of firing a rocket from a satellite. When the rocket fires forwards and the satellite goes flying backwards into space

"Oops. Forgot about that bit"

Are you sure about that?
www.cnn.com...

Search "Kirari" on the following web page. Is there any reason why is should be launched from russia/com(munist state) rather than japan?

www.hq.nasa.gov...

[edit on 16/4/06 by theBman]

[edit on 16/4/06 by theBman]

Seeing as this experiment is being done in collaboration with the ESA I doubt its that sinister.



www.jaxa.jp...

What ever purpose underlines the experiment its very impresive non the less. I kinda had a feeling that some kinda technology like this exists or was being worked on i just thought everyone was keeping it a secret. Very cool.

Yes. laser pointers can make you blind and damage optics, but are otherwise harmless. Also read on that site the test was performed at White Sands in New Mexico and they had to postpone it till they had good weather. On an average day on an average place, most likely nothing would have happened.

Simon, don't you think that with lensing effect in the air, and enough power, a laser can drill through the atmosphere and create a column of low pressure, with less dissipation?