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[Jopax]

And then you have lightsabers

[iceball3]

The jet cutter-flame thrower sounds really short ranged. Any material that I can think off that you could use as a fluid jet cutter would fan out really quickly.

Having used plasma cutters in the past, I can testify for the effectiveness of a plasma jet at cutting.... well, anything. Now, it is really short range, but if we are going OTT sci-fi, we could enhance it through clever use of strong magnetic fields to pinch/focus/stretch the plasma jet into a very long and narrow "beam" of hot ionised material in order to chew through armours like they are not even there. Said magnetic containment of plasma could even direct said plasma into a more diffuse cloud to act as a flame thrower, or into "globs" to fire at and splash over targets...

I know, plasma cutters and water-jet cutters are very, very effective as cutting tools, but they only reach a foot or something before their cutting power drop off. However, if we were able to confine plasma at long distances well enough to use it as a beam weapon, using it as a beam weapon would be a pretty trivial apllication compared to, say, building an open-air fusion reactor.

There is a more viable alternative, honestly, using roughly similar basis but different technologies: Particle beams.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_beam
Granted, they need LOADS of energy to run, but this becomes more of a space-phlebotnium or engineering problem which can be handwaved depending on the hardness of your scifi.


Commenting on the prior statements of gassing someone in their space vessel: Please remember not to underestimate the availability of internals and gas masks to the crew, as well as any variety of atmospherics monitoring and filtering system they got going on. What kind of space station or vessel wouldn't have something like that?

The issue with some kind of beam weapon, though, is that unlike your traditional bullet they'll cauterise any wounds. They'd be worse for anti-personnel, probably better for anti-armour or anti-armoured personnel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsed_energy_projectile
Ain't exactly going to be bad for antipersonnel if you're crispifrying their nerves and making their skin EXPLODE. Though this is a specific beam weapon pattern, but sci fi would likely implement it, yes?

[BFEL]

Ok, time to go full crazyland here.

Telekinetic Engine
Basic idea is to use radio/microwaves as a delivery system and then SPACE MAGIC happens that converts the energy into kinetic energy, effectively allowing for telekinesis.
Anybody have any ideas for how to convert energy in midair?

[Virex]

Iceball: In an atmosphere, a particle beam is ridiculously inefficient. The problem is that any atmosphere stops charged particles very effectively (Electrons can only pass through 50 nm of ambient pressure atmosphere before half of them have been scattered.) This means you either need very, very high energy particles (penetration depth goes up with energy), or you need to push the atmosphere aside. In the first case, you're using way more energy than neccesary because most high energy particles will pass right through the target without doing a lot of damage. In the second case you're wasting most of your energy on getting your particles to the target in the first place.


BFEL: I would use ultrasound rather than microwaves. Prototype acoustic tractor beams have already been demonstrated: http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/acoustic-tractor-beam-levitates-objects-using-ultrasound-n451666. In addition to that, using microwaves (or any electromagnetic waves) for tractor beams would require either radiation pressure, which requires a lot of energy for a minute amount of pressure, or it uses the principle of beamed propulsion, in which you focus the microwaves next to the target to create an explosion, which has the problem that it might burn fragile materials.


On another note, what do people here think about Electrolasers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolaser ? To me it seems like it would be more effective than long-range plasma cutters or particle beam weapons with the added benefit that you can have both 'stun' and 'kill' settings in one weapon.

[H4zardZ1]

And then you have lightsabers

Well, depending on how much do you want to carry the actual machine... it can be heavy as heck.

I know, plasma cutters and water-jet cutters are very, very effective as cutting tools, but they only reach a foot or something before their cutting power drop off. However, if we were able to confine plasma at long distances well enough to use it as a beam weapon, using it as a beam weapon would be a pretty trivial apllication compared to, say, creating an open-air fusion reactor instantly on a ship.

FTFY

Iceball: In an atmosphere, a particle beam is ridiculously inefficient. The problem is that any atmosphere stops charged particles very effectively (Electrons can only pass through 50 nm of ambient pressure atmosphere before half of them have been scattered.) This means you either need very, very high energy particles (penetration depth goes up with energy), or you need to push the atmosphere aside. In the first case, you're using way more energy than neccesary because most high energy particles will pass right through the target without doing a lot of damage. In the second case you're wasting most of your energy on getting your particles to the target in the first place.


BFEL: I would use ultrasound rather than microwaves. Prototype acoustic tractor beams have already been demonstrated: http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/acoustic-tractor-beam-levitates-objects-using-ultrasound-n451666. In addition to that, using microwaves (or any electromagnetic waves) for tractor beams would require either radiation pressure, which requires a lot of energy for a minute amount of pressure, or it uses the principle of beamed propulsion, in which you focus the microwaves next to the target to create an explosion, which has the problem that it might burn fragile materials.


On another note, what do people here think about Electrolasers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolaser?

Uh, bloomlasers that actually make use of the bloom?

...Is gamma guns plausible? They're, well, goes through someone, and if the armor isn't dense enough, passing through it like it was nothing. Literally(i mean, treating the armor as a nonexistent barrier, passing through it without destroying it). Perfect to burn people when you want to loot the armor.

[Jopax]

Don't we already have stuff like neutron bombs or something like that for doing just that? Basically a nuke tuned in such a way that the explosion itself is as contained and minimal but the radiation blast is so intense that it just kills every living thing nearby.

Basically turn that into a gun then?

Edit:

Yes we do, and they're basically unshielded nukes, so in addition to blowing everything up, it also irradiates everything in a much larger radius with a very lethal dose of neutrons and gamma rays. Fun stuff.

[BFEL]

SPACE MAGIC always works.

Should be noted that EM waves do produce pressure. Assuming sufficiently advanced technology, perhaps they can emit some form of EM wave that produces a larger degree of pressure?

EDIT: Or, like the PEP idea, it could just ablate the surface of whatever it hits, producing pressure.

Hmm, I like the EM wave idea, but I'm PRETTY sure that has a REALLY low return rate on the input/output energy ratio.

BFEL: I would use ultrasound rather than microwaves. Prototype acoustic tractor beams have already been demonstrated: http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/acoustic-tractor-beam-levitates-objects-using-ultrasound-n451666. In addition to that, using microwaves (or any electromagnetic waves) for tractor beams would require either radiation pressure, which requires a lot of energy for a minute amount of pressure, or it uses the principle of beamed propulsion, in which you focus the microwaves next to the target to create an explosion, which has the problem that it might burn fragile materials.

Hmm, reading up on it the ultrasound actually sounds pretty much like what I intended, though the article doesn't give quite enough info to commit to it.
The reason I was using EM waves is because we already have working devices that use them to transfer power/information. I mean we've basically perfected the humble remote control, so it seemed a logical place to start.
EDIT: oh, and ultrasound wouldn't work it space either.

The intention was for the engine to be something of a swiss army knife. I.E. being able to transmit energy wherever desired and then have it do anything from levitation to creating barriers to explosions to just slicing/stabbing with a thin contact area.
More military applications then any gun could hope for.

[Virex]

H4zardZ1: The problems with gamma ray weapons are: 1.) we don't have a way to create a gamma ray laser (although in theory a free electron laser might work if you amp it up to 11, but in that case you might as well stick to x-rays) and 2.) Gamma rays mostly go right through their target, so you're wasting most of the energy you put in. Unless you have a special reason to use gamma rays, pumping that amount of energy in a conventional laser or a rail gun is much more efficient.

BFEL: Well, you could try using microwaves, but you'd probably end up frying your target rather than levitating it. Photons really don't have a lot of momentum. The less hand-wavy alternative would be that it can create a plasma window anywhere: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_window. It would of course be very limited in range because of the strong electromagnetic fields needed to maintain a plasma window and I'm pretty sure a plasma window zaps any person that touches it, but other than that it mostly does what you're looking for.

[Virex]

Bremsstrahlung? Doesn't work because most of the X-rays it creates are immediately adsorbed by either the shielding or the surrounding atmosphere. Low energy X-rays don't go very far and Bremmstralung doesn't produce a lot of high-energy X-rays.
 


Oh and Jopax, the term you're looking for is a salted nuclear weapon. They produce a fuckton of fallout at the expense of having a lower explosive yield.

[Jopax]

Yeah I read up on it after writing the post, they're similar but different. Salted ones are primarily for long lasting effects and radiation damage. Neutron (or Enhanced Radiation Bombs) ones are like normal but without any of the shielding that would absorb the neutron radiation.

[H4zardZ1]

H4zardZ1: The problems with gamma ray weapons are: 1.) we don't have a way to create a gamma ray laser (although in theory a free electron laser might work if you amp it up to 11, but in that case you might as well stick to x-rays) and 2.) Gamma rays mostly go right through their target, so you're wasting most of the energy you put in. Unless you have a special reason to use gamma rays, pumping that amount of energy in a conventional laser or a rail gun is much more efficient.

The reason two is the reason i suggested that; It just passes through mostly everything, and thus, people. The problem is, how is the gun built just to hit the front, not the back?

Bremsstrahlung? Doesn't work because most of the X-rays it creates are immediately adsorbed by either the shielding or the surrounding atmosphere. Low energy X-rays don't go very far.

Aww.

I want to irradiate things, dammit! I want my enemies to suffer diarrhoea and illness as their cells all die!

The actual reason is that mostly radiation passes though armor without destroying it. If it was radiation shielded through, other options are available(through not likely).

[Virex]

A free-electron laser only shoots forward, so that's not a problem. Well, technically it shoots backwards too, but what comes out the back is almost exclusively infrared light. Thanks relativity!

[iceball3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Excalibur
Here's a cool one. Bomb-pumped lasers.

[H4zardZ1]

A free-electron laser only shoots forward, so that's not a problem. Well, technically it shoots backwards too, but what comes out the back is almost exclusively infrared light. Thanks relativity!

So in addition of gamma ray, if we can build infrared reflectors it will also shoot infrared? Hmm... will that heat up the armor?

...Ohh i have an idea of those! Let's insert a giant gamma ray cannon in a ship for killing everyone inside a ship! But what we can do with the infrared?

In enough magnitude, can sound actually become a real tangible longitudinal-waved force, or just able to vibrate anything weak and brittle enough into cracks and eventually into powder?

[jaked122]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Excalibur
Here's a cool one. Bomb-pumped lasers.

I hadn't read through that page. The way that they talk about throwing a nuclear reactor at an incoming nuke is rather alarming, and in my opinion, impractical, reactors are heavy, and one should not conceive of throwing them at things unless they're sure it's going to work.


I'm still convinced that there aren't better theoretical weapons than gray goo, because ultimately, utter habitat annihilation is quite a large stick to shake at someone. I'm also convinced that it probably isn't possible to generalize it to spread through inorganic matter, or all organic matter, or do so at a fast enough rate.


I'm still just impressed by the much more realistic possibility of dropping asteroids on people.