Shuttle SRBs in the news

... not to mention flying on them...

Reply to
Chuck Stewart
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Well, perhaps I'm being overly pedantic... perhaps Jerry meant something other than what I thought he meant... :)

I just found the thought of Sandia's kilowatt diode laser in space somewhat strange when the military is equipping the Joint Strike Fighter with a megawatt-class chemical laser cannon :)

(Which sounds super-impressive untill you get into the physics and parameter constraints...)

Still, as of now, it's looking like any combat lasers in space will be limited-use chemical jobs lofted for a single mission... and even that much speculation requires much handwaving.

Reply to
Chuck Stewart

In the stroy that I read, the chief engineer for the project (Chang I think) had said that because of the discovery concerning the output of hte "new" diodes that chemical lasers were expected to be obsolete.

I am trying to find the link....

It was very interesting to read about the output that they were talking about. Anyway.....

In original story about the SRBs it talked about them not using the new design. Seems a bit of a waste to go through the trouble and not take adavantage of the increased lift capacity.

Reply to
ASW

That's OK... I screwed up a bit: The JSF's laser is to be powered from the fighter's engines, and _not_ chemically powered. A class 2c brainfart. The other aircraft laser projects are chemically powered.

I would definitely like to read that :)

As I understand it that project was started well before the Columbia accident slammed the door on further shuttle developement.

I guess it's possible the new SRB's might be used in ELV's...

Reply to
Chuck Stewart

What is this laser supposed to do? Is it a weapon for shooting stuff down, or is it just to blind enemy pilots and incoming missiles?

Reply to
RayDunakin

Nope. Combat laser. Intended to destroy targets in the air and on the ground.

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Yep... that science-fictional age is finally arriving. Directed energy weapons as standard weapons of war... and they'll be retrofitting current fighter aircraft with chemically-powered lasers as well.

Now the JSF will budget over a megawatt of power for the laser, and will only get a 100 kilowatt beam out, but that is way sufficient to insure that a target aircraft has a Very Bad Day if it can't escape the beam... and that won't be easy. You might have noticed that lasers tend to hit what they're pointed at.

Reply to
Chuck Stewart

Wow, that is cool. I had no idea we were that close to having operational laser weapons on fighters.

Reply to
RayDunakin

Take a look at:

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was just there (Albuquerque, NM) earlier this month on a job interview.

-John

Reply to
John D.

Tom: There are good pics of the propellant mixer and other RSRM stuff at

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(my former employer). Click on "Products" and then scroll down to "Shuttle RSRM". There are several RSRM information pages. Lots of stuff on other missile systems also. Hope this helps, Ed

Reply to
Ed Giugliano

On Sat, 25 Oct 2003 11:53:35 -0500, "Chuck Stewart" is alleged to have written:

So... they installed nuclear engines on the JSF, then?

- Rick "Intrigued by these non-chemical engines" Dickinson

Reply to
Rick Dickinson

Hoo wee! Now friendly forces can be cut down even faster! That's progress :-)

Chuck Stewart wrote:

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Reply to
Dwayne Surdu-Miller

They _tried_ to, but Greenpeace threw a fit...

OK... if'n you want to be picky about it: The JSF laser will derive power from the chemically-fueled jet engine that propels the fighter. This can be done because the JSF, being a very modular jack-of-all-trades fighter, can be configured to make space for the mechanical power take-off from the jet emgine, and the generator that will crank.

Current aircraft, lacking the forsight to be designed for laser weapons, will be retrofitted with a COIL: Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser. Which burns oxygen and iodine to directly power the beam.

K'?

Chuck "No catgirls were lased in the making of this post" Stewart

Reply to
Chuck Stewart

K.

Reply to
Jerry Irvine

Chuck Stewart wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@anapuma.nekolabs.edu:

Consider that -maybe- 100 KW is available from the engine-driven generators aboard an aircraft(not considering aircraft power usage,either),and that lasers generally are -maybe- 20% efficient,if that(conservative SWAG).It would not be a very powerful laser with that sort of power supply.

Note that the EA-6 electronic warfare plane uses outboard wind-driven turbo-generators to supply enough electric power for it's jammers,they couldn't get enough power from the plane's own engine-driven generators.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

The military has noticed that the PTO designed for the forward lift fan in the STOVL version of the LM JSF can provide prodigious amounts of power.

And if you don't install a lift fan.....

This is giving them ideas. :-)

Reply to
David Schultz

Hmmmm.... like classical science-fiction interstellar battlecraft, the combat vehicles of 21st-centry Earth may use at least as much of their engine system power output to energize directed-beam weaponry as they do for propulsion!

-dave w

Reply to
David Weinshenker

Now if only the power source was more than 10% efficient.

Reply to
Jerry Irvine

Real Genius! I guess in peace time, they can use that PTO to cut the grass and dig post holes.

Alan

Reply to
Alan Jones

Haven't read up on this much, but bear in mind that with a 'pulsed' laser, you can store up substantial amounts of energy for one 'blast'.

David Erbas-White

Reply to
David Erbas-White

Er... no. The JSF engine will supply about a megawatt off power to the laser.

In turn the _laser_ will output about 100 KW into an enemy target.

Lethal.

The JSF engine is designed to have that kind of output to spare because it is intended to power a lift fan in Marine variant of the JSF... (thus replacing the Harrier, so I understand...) Other variants were going to leave the space for that fan empty to increase fuel capacity and speed.

Somebody noticed that if you left the space empty except for a generator and laser you could put that spare megawatt of power to quite a different use.

The laser is no surprise given the developments in laser systems derived from the COIL research. What's scary is the occasional idle mumble of "rail gun" heard here and there...

Reply to
Chuck Stewart

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