Scifi Laser Rifles With A Dash Of Realism

[Spacescifi]

 

If you have watched any of Styropyro's laser videos then you already know how laser guns would be.

 

Scifi laser guns in movies are so uber they can blow holes in things with a single shot.

 

Realistically though, the higher the power of the laser the more heavy your heatsink needs to be, since anything less dense or heavy will only overheat faster...leading to a melted laser.

For example, lets say I have a laser rifle with a 6 inch radius lens. Kinda big lens huh?

With lasers, bigger is always better,  since heat is diffused more which slows overheating.

Honestly though...if anyone has scifi laser rifles  that can blast holes into stuff (pistols are hardly realistic as they would overheat fast), then they would be kind of like normal guns, just with less range.

Like guns in that they would expend heatsink casing shells with each laser pulse, otherwise without it, the laser will overheat sooner or later.

 

Less range in that the farther away a target is the less instant damage a laser would do.

 

Ultimately, scifi laser rifles with a dash of realism are NOT a good weapon.

What they are good at is being used as a tool.

Want a fire with no matches? Lase something! Even better, once heatsink casing shell cools off it will probably be reusable anyway.

If you want maximum lasing time you need a laser rifle turret that can be piped to a river near the edge.

From there you could fire plenty of shots off as water is cycling through and cooling the laser nonstop, maybe without dropping heatsink casing shells.

Yet if you want high enough energy to blast stuff with holes, it would probably take a combo of heatsink shell casing dropping and water cycling cooling from a river or other natural water source.

Again...still poor as a weapon, since regular guns are more efficient at making life mortal really fast and at greater range, for less energy cost too.

What do you think?

As far as I can tell, laser rifiles are fancy construction or camping tools for space colonists...maybe to scare away wild life without actually shooting bullets?

 

 

Edited November 10, 2020 by Spacescifi

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Damnit - SNL took down the YouTube 'Amazin Laser' clip.  What's next?  HappyFunBall? 

[kerbiloid]

Laser weapon has nothing common with laser tools because laser tools are cutters/piercers, while the purpose of a laser weapon is either cause a local explosion with an ultra-short impulse, or blind sensitive elements with low-power irradiation.

Laser gun has an ideal accuracy, its shot trajectory is not curved by gravity or air. So, one shot = one hit.

Disadvantage is its dependence on weather, smoke, and fog.
So, a specialized weapon rather than universal one.

Edited November 10, 2020 by kerbiloid

[Spica]

Take a look at this page for guidance on and ideas for laser guns: http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sidearmenergy.php

There's plenty of reading on this topic to do on this page and the page for "convectional weapons"

[DDE]

9 hours ago, Spacescifi said:

What do you think?

As far as I can tell, laser rifiles are fancy construction or camping tools for space colonists...maybe to scare away wild life without actually shooting bullets?

There is a certain other kind of wildlife.

Spoiler

Finland why

The reason laser weapons are showing on the battlefield in the 2020s are these low-level threats.

[magnemoe]

5 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Laser weapon has nothing common with laser tools because laser tools are cutters/piercers, while the purpose of a laser weapon is either cause a local explosion with an ultra-short impulse, or blind sensitive elements with low-power irradiation.

Laser gun has an ideal accuracy, it's shot trajectory is not curved by gravity or air. So, one shot = one hit.

Disadvantage is its dependence on weather, smoke, and fog.
So, a specialized weapon rather than universal one.

This, now an laser rifle has two downsides, one is that is an human aiming not an targeting system, second weight and bulk is limited to that an human can carry, this includes the power source. 
It makes much more sense to put the laser on an truck or in an plane, treat it like an radar guided autocannon or short range missile battery. 
First you have an power source, second mass can be from a ton and up and volume of m^3, from something you can put on an hummer to something shipping container sized who is only mobile if on an ship.

And its lots of effort into making laser weapons, they makes for very good AAA, they would also be nice in an plane both for hitting softer targets like people and trucks and as an defense against missiles. 

For an realistic laser rifle, i would make it either an sniper rifle or for anti air, think an stinger missile. Make it an chemical laser with cartridges. Eject hot cartridge after firing. Perhaps have some mirror system in front who let guidance system track target. 
 

[kerbiloid]

Also stationary and handheld laser weapons are great for a lone wolf fictional castle, as they don't spend expendables, so you don't need to produce them being a dark lord.

Surround your castle with turrets containing a laser, a microwave, and a buzzer, and you can drive away casual intruders with sound, stupid casual intruders with microwave, or blind the real heroes with the low-power laser and/or shoot them with a more powerful one.

8 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

put the laser on an truck

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=ru&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Стилет_(лазерный_комплекс)

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=ru&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Сжатие_(лазерный_комплекс)

[DDE]

55 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=ru&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Стилет_(лазерный_комплекс)

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=ru&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Сжатие_(лазерный_комплекс)

A picture is worth a thousand words.

[Mikenike]

9 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Laser gun has an ideal accuracy, its shot trajectory is not curved by gravity or air. So, one shot = one hit.

Hit detection when you are in an old game just had a revival

[TheSaint]

4 hours ago, magnemoe said:

This, now an laser rifle has two downsides, one is that is an human aiming not an targeting system, second weight and bulk is limited to that an human can carry, this includes the power source. 
It makes much more sense to put the laser on an truck or in an plane, treat it like an radar guided autocannon or short range missile battery. 
First you have an power source, second mass can be from a ton and up and volume of m^3, from something you can put on an hummer to something shipping container sized who is only mobile if on an ship.

And its lots of effort into making laser weapons, they makes for very good AAA, they would also be nice in an plane both for hitting softer targets like people and trucks and as an defense against missiles. 

For an realistic laser rifle, i would make it either an sniper rifle or for anti air, think an stinger missile. Make it an chemical laser with cartridges. Eject hot cartridge after firing. Perhaps have some mirror system in front who let guidance system track target. 
 

This. It's going to be a long time before any sort of man-portable laser is ready for prime time. Heat dissipation and power density are the big issues. (Although, on the power density front, in addition to chemical laser cartridges, you can also look at explosive power generators as well.) Add to that the fact that atmospheric interference is going to degrade the effect of the beam over long distances, it just isn't as shiny as it sounds on the tin. Would be handy for the Space Marines, though. Zero recoil, zero atmospheric attenuation. And all it has to do to score a mission kill is compromise a pressure suit.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

On 11/10/2020 at 12:55 AM, kerbiloid said:

...

Laser gun has an ideal accuracy, its shot trajectory is not curved by gravity or air. So, one shot = one hit.

Disadvantage is its dependence on weather, smoke, and fog.
So, a specialized weapon rather than universal one.

Don't forget parallax.  

 

Also, an excited human can still fail to aim; missed shots and collateral damage will still be an issue

Edited November 11, 2020 by JoeSchmuckatelli

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Also, an excited human can still fail to aim; missed shots and collateral damage will still be an issue

Ok, it's exactly as accurate as its laser designator on top.

[magnemoe]

On 11/11/2020 at 4:11 PM, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Don't forget parallax.  

Also, an excited human can still fail to aim; missed shots and collateral damage will still be an issue

Parallax is not an issue at light speed unless you fire at target lots of thousands of kilometres away, yes this is plausible hard scifi but it would be spaceship combat, with weapon systems far more like an 5" naval gun than an rifle.
Serious AAA guns are run by computers anyway, they tend to have an manual mode but this is primary to use against ground targets or small boats. 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

20 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Parallax is not an issue at light speed unless you fire at target lots of thousands of kilometres away, yes this is plausible hard scifi but it would be spaceship combat, with weapon systems far more like an 5" naval gun than an rifle.
Serious AAA guns are run by computers anyway, they tend to have an manual mode but this is primary to use against ground targets or small boats. 

I know; but as I wrote this, I was thinking about trying for a head-shot at 5 kilometers.  Presuming you can see the target, you should be able to hit it, but parallax would still offset the strike of the laser unless you're compensating for it somehow.

[kerbiloid]

If someone really needs to headshoot a single customer from 5 km through random fogs and smokes.