America builds worlds most powerfull laser.

The world's most powerful laser, which can simulate the energy force of a hydrogen bomb and the sun, has been built in the US.

Built in California and measuring the size of a football pitch, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the culmination of more than 10 years of work, at a cost of nearly £2.5bn.

Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are hoping a series of experiments will allow it eventually to mimic the heat and pressure found at the heart of the sun.

NIF consists of 192 separate laser beams, each of which is programmed to travel 1,000ft in one-thousandth of a second to converge simultaneously on a target the size of a pencil eraser

Source: Americal builds worlds most powerfull laser

I wouldn't like to be around when they test this thing out.

As i read the article i was thinking to myself, "I'm surprised the military hasn't got in on this?".

As usual though, they never let you down.

The laser "will be a cornerstone" of the weapons stewardship programme," said Thomas D'Agostino, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, a semi-independent arm of the Energy Department which oversees nuclear weapons programmes.

"It's now operational," Mr Moses said. "The lasers are there. The targets are there, and we've proven the optics. But now the proof is in the shooting. We've got to put all this together and shoot the targets. It's the first time anyone has ever done experiments at this scale."

I would like to think this sort of technology would be just used for energy as reported, but the thought of this ever being used for something more sinister is something quite scary.

Thats if i'm reading it correctly? Am i?

CX.

I hope they use it to hold ransom the world for a million dollars!!

The lasers are indeed powerful, giving out more wattage than the entire US generating capacity, but they only fire for a few billionths of a second, so their actual power output is quite low.

There is already work going ahead in Europe to take this tech to the next level. NIF is like a demonstrator, showing that laser initiated fusion is able to produce more power than it consumes. If successful, then the Europeans will build a reactor capable of igniting many fuel pellets a second to produce a constant stream of power, as opposed to NIF which can only ignite one fuel pellet evey few hours.

Rest assured that the military will already have had access to this laser tech long ago and if they had a use for it, they'd already be working on it.

Just like the LHC, there is nothing to fear from NIF.

Awesome! It's like the Death Star superlaser! I hope the guys operating it get to wear those boss black helmets and uniforms like in Star Wars.

A laser that powerful is interesting though. With a network of mirrors, they might be able to focus it pretty much anywhere.

Originally posted by thisguyrighthere
I hope they use it to hold ransom the world for a million dollars!!

There working on breeding the worlds largest Shark to mount the Laser on then will hold the world ransom!

SHARKS WITH LASER BEAMS!!




[edit on 31-3-2009 by 38181]

reply to post by moonwilson


"fire when ready..."

I could see this mounted on a satellite. Imagine, instead of precision missile strikes, they could just snipe you from space.

I'd say there are bigger out there.

Being a laser display operator I'm on some pretty nifty laser forums. One of the members in a particular forum works on many DOD/mil laser tech projects. He often has to say things similar to 'the official power record is this for this type of laser (often set in 1970s or so haha), but the actual power record I can't tell you. I can say that it makes public tech look like a joke'.

So if this is what the public sector is getting then mil sector most likely has the same output in something the size of a shoebox ;D

None the less, very cool tech. Optics become a problem at massive outputs, glass with the tiniest of normally acceptable impurities melts like butter.

[edit on 31/3/09 by GhostR1der]

Its the Allen Parsons Project!!

"As you all know, my scientist Allen Parson has been working on this laser. It is for this reason that I shall be calling it the Allen Parson's project!"
Scott - "HAHAHA. The Allen Parson's Project was a progressive rock band from the 80's....... ass."

Evil - "The moon will then have this gian 'laser'. I shall call it a 'death star'"

But... But... I thought THIS was the most powerful laser: Mo st Powerful Laser


I could not resist... But Ghostr1der is right - chances are the military has an even stronger laser, or a more efficient one. ( Black Projects? )

[edit on 31-3-2009 by ShoopDaWhoop]

reply to post by CX


I was just reading about this on BBC. So this fusion reactor will generate 10x the power of our Sun. 100,000,000 degrees celsius, concentrated on a single area. It's alright, but 20 years wait is too long, this should have been done 20 years ago.

[edit on 1-4-2009 by Gouki]

reply to post by Gouki


the NIF is the CULMINATION of FIFTY years worth of work, it wasnt posible 20 years ago for many reasons.
Whole new technologies were developed to build the NIF, and some of it has nothing to do with the science behind fusion but in maufacturing techniques need to achieve the scientific objective.

Originally posted by stumason
The lasers are indeed powerful, giving out more wattage than the entire US generating capacity, but they only fire for a few billionths of a second, so their actual power output is quite low.

There is already work going ahead in Europe to take this tech to the next level. NIF is like a demonstrator, showing that laser initiated fusion is able to produce more power than it consumes. If successful, then the Europeans will build a reactor capable of igniting many fuel pellets a second to produce a constant stream of power, as opposed to NIF which can only ignite one fuel pellet evey few hours.

Rest assured that the military will already have had access to this laser tech long ago and if they had a use for it, they'd already be working on it.

Just like the LHC, there is nothing to fear from NIF.

next level?


what level?

it is a total waste of money...

the room has to be ultra clean or the lasers power beams gets diluted.

the pellet has to be very accurately positioned...the pellet support has to be replaced each time.

1 pellet at a time?

get real...

it makes a huge mess after each shot...

the room has to be cleaned after each shot ...

totally useless.


if the 18 laser beams get out of alignment EVEN SLIGHTLY THE ROOMS WILL BE DESTROYED. and the expensive lasers mirrors ruined...

total waste of money...AND IMPRACTICAL.

dumb idea dreamed up by dumb and dumber.

weird, they had something simliar to this on the new TRANSFORMERS 2 movie.
He calls in a "rail gun strike" and the USS captain says "HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT? THAT IS ABOVE TOP SECRET CLASSIFIED"
anywhoo not to spoil the movie...it gets the job done
lol

Originally posted by 38181

Originally posted by thisguyrighthere
I hope they use it to hold ransom the world for a million dollars!!

There working on breeding the worlds largest Shark to mount the Laser on then will hold the world ransom!

SHARKS WITH LASER BEAMS!!




[edit on 31-3-2009 by 38181]

darnit you guys beat me to it! lol

gonna be cool to follow the progress of this tho.

And that new crop circle....
This laser was the first thing I thought of when I saw the pictures...

Peace...