Can the light saber be made?, page 6
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reply posted on 22-12-2008 @ 05:07 AM by Anonymous ATS
Clearly, the lightsabre is not solely a laser based weapon, but relies instead on the confinement of a plasma by a shaped magnetic field. When the light sabre is fired up, a shaped magnetic field is projected from its end and a small amount of plasma (charged particles such as hydrogen nuclei, i.e. protons) is jettisoned into the containment field. A pulsed laser is then used to heat the plasma until it glows white hot and then to maintain the temperature by periodic pulses. When the light sabre is run down, the pulsed laser switches off, the magnetic field switches off, and the plasma dissipates in the air.

The technology this weapon relies on is the ability to shape a magnetic containment field into a beam shape, a powerful pulsed laser that fits in a light sabre handle, magnetized fuel cartridges of compressed plasma and a power source to power all this, that also fits in the handle. 117 patents have been registered to cover this work.

A newer verson of the weapon is currently under development. This does not rely on stored plasma, but can run on standard hydrogen. The pulsed laser is used to super heat a "packet" of hydrogen in a vacuum chamber in the handle - this strips all the electrons off the hydrogen nuclei forming a super hot plasma, which is then jettisoned from the handle into the magnetic containment field.

This approach reduces the power requirements of the weapon, since there is no longer a need to maintain a magnetic field within the fuel cartridges. This also reduces the complexity of refuelling the weapon, which no longer needs to be refuelled directly, but can rely on removable unpowered (inert) fuel cartridges. This also allows spares to be carried.

Another area of improvement considered, is the ability to retrieve the plasma back into the weapon when it is run down. This could further lengthen the life of the fuel cartridges. The problem has been the storage of this plasma which has caused significant overheating issues that we have not been able to overcome. This also puts extra strain on the internal power unit that would need to maintain a magnetic containment field to hold the plasma, as the current version does in the fuel cartridges, thus offsetting the saving on moving to inert fuel cartridges. We have therefore discontinued this approach, for now. If we can overcome the initial heating issues, we may attempt to rapidly cool the plasma back into a gas and restore it in the fuel cartridges, however a solution to this is some way off.

For further information please see our commercial in Janes Defence Weekly.

Darius Collins
Sabre Weapons Systems


reply posted on 31-12-2008 @ 02:16 AM by Unresponsible
reply to post by Kruel



Or possibly a spherical forcefield torqued into a monomolecular cylinder.
Just 'cause it could.

Cheers


reply posted on 6-5-2009 @ 11:38 AM by co7in
Hmmm... time to reinject some life into this thread! (hopefully)


I first tried to solve this problem many years ago in childhood I once thought I had come up with a feasable solution which was:

one sided mirrors, I thought as light could pass through one side not the other you could bounce a laser infinately between two mirrors (the bottom being one sided) forever increasing in intensity.



However these days, I think the design of a light based weapon would be more akin to a fusion generator with exposed lasers - the main problems being:
1) the time you could sustain the reaction
2) the source of the initial energy

anyway, basic design would have a central telescoping tube with a parabolic disk mirror at the top (wider than the tube) and multiple (though probably not continuos lasers around the tube) - giving it a nice swing feel, but no stab ability

These lasers would be reflected back to a gold plate creating x-rays which would then be used to condense a deutrium/tritrium containing sphere (crystal) - creating power of an approximate order of 10 times the input power, hopefully allowing the laser to be sustained for 10 times the initial power input through some means of harnessing the energy and storage
(maybe initially you could plug another charged battery onto the end to provide the required starting power)

also the handle would require a near perfect insulator as containing a (minute) sun could proove to be a challange, and the weapon would require refeuling after each use (both a new crystal and initialising battery)

Much of this based on the technology being developed for nuclear fusion
news.bbc.co.uk...

Just stay away from mirrors!!



Another area I would consider investigating would be electron guns and... plasma (as we all suggested)
Electrons have a mass, therby providing something for the other sabers to contact. though obvious problems such as creating a near vacuum with gas corresponding to the desired colour in the appropriate location without an external shielding glass tube - again I'm thinking a central telescoping tube connecting cathode and anode, with vents (providing your gas and expelling nearby air) and suction (to recollect the gas for further use, and hopefully lower the pressure around the saber itself) would have to be implemented.

again this would provide a swing feel with the anode end being weighted appropriately, but no real stab ability

Just stay away from magnets!!



Not that it would be much use, but what better icon to show yesteryears products of imagination, are todays products of reality!

Here's to hoping one day (before George Lucas passes) the lightsaber in some functional form is created!


reply posted on 3-9-2009 @ 07:09 PM by iealchemist
Read and weep for all you lightsaber skeptics out there!
It could be possible to use ACTUAL LIGHT in a lightsaber that doesn't use mirrors on the outside or anything!

Check it out, SOLID LIGHT!
uninews.unimelb.edu.au...

If this can be done in free air or in a vacuum, it might be possible to arrange the "light crystals" in a sword shape. It even has repulsion. This technology has so many applications beyond quantum computers.

BTW: Beam katanas from "No More Heroes" are way more awesome than lightsabers.



reply posted on 7-1-2010 @ 09:18 AM by tetris11
Ok, how about this:

Shape and Cutting Action;
The shape of lightsaber is maintained by a series of virtual magnetic fields along the 'blade' as so:

||==|| <<< <<< <<< <<<
||==|| v o ^ v o ^ v o ^ v o ^ .... etc
||==|| >>> >>> >>> >>>

where the <(left), v(down), >(right), and ^(up) are the directions of the magnetic field, and 'o' is the centre point of each of the virtual magnetic fields in the series.

Since the ^ and v directions of the field cancel out, the direction of the field would go completely around the 'edge' of the 'blade'.

The material that passes along the edge of the field that would provide the intense burning contact would be the fragments of a crystal (possibly the fabled crystal core of the lightsaber).

These picoscopic fragments due to their negligible mass would quickly move along the field, and provide a fine cutting edge to the field which could slice through basically anything (think of nanoparticles displacing real particles at intense speeds).

Heating and Melting;
The friction alone in this action would cause the intense heat required to melt most objects, but since the particles are mostly kinetic and not thermal, perhaps a small heater at the hilt would give thermal energy to the particles upon each lap of the cycle (the magnetic field strength would have to be increased to overcome the increased speed of the particles in order to maintain a consistently small orbital radius.)

Glow;
Ideally the magnetic field, along with giving motion to the crystal particles/fragments, would induce a small current in the crystal fragments which depending on the properties of the crystals would cause them to glow. Those particles at larger radii would have smaller currents induced and less of a glow, and those with smaller radii would have larger induced currents and a piercing glow. This idea is consistent with the fine but slightly hazy edge of the lightsaber whilst having a brilliant white centre.

The image drawn above would give only a 2d lightsaber (since the parts facing to and away from the page have no field on them), but as long the magnetic field is projected in the same way that a solenoid ('coil') is, then you would get a full-fledged lightsaber.

The only problem:
Virtual magnetic fields do exist, but they can't be setup from the same source (i.e. the hilt), they need to be formed from many different angles (maybe different angular variations FROM the hilt?).
Also, how the hell are you supposed to project a solenoid? In order to produce a field in the first place you must have a current along a wire.
What Im proposing is a means to project a current along a coil. That's basically a very very complex and narrow electric field.

I dont think this is what the Force had in mind when it comes to building a lightsaber. Obi-wan would be rolling in his grave right now if he hadn't been in those damn prequels.






[edit on 7-1-2010 by tetris11]

[edit on 7-1-2010 by tetris11]
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