A Laser Update

A year ago, 4/23/12, I authored the blog, A New Old Use for Lasers, in which I discussed current and past uses for lasers. The focus of the piece was Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars Defense System and a laser system that could deflect meteors.

Courtesy Google Images

Consider this blog an update. On Monday, 4/8/13, the United States Navy tested a ship mounted laser; a laser so powerful that it can set a flying drone on fire.

According to USNews.nbcnews.com the laser system, Laser Weapons System (LaWS), will be deployed on the USS Ponce and operational by the summer of 2014. Initially, the LaWS will be used to combat small boats that pose a threat to larger U.S. Navy ships – much like the small Iranian fast boats that pester U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf.

Courtesy Google Images

The LaWS would fit into the military’s vision of a leaner, quicker and cheaper to deploy fighting force. It doesn’t need propellants, can keep firing as long as there is a power source and a shot of directed energy costs about $1. Gizmag.com reports that the Navy envisions the LaWS being used for precision and covert engagements.

The test firing on April 8th seems to have been a success. The LaWS was fired from a moving ship at a moving target drone causing the drone to catch fire. Granted, a drone is not a missile or jet plane but it’s still a moving target.

In my April 2012 post, I asked if you thought if lasers used to deflect space rocks could also deflect missiles. I think the Navy has answered my question in a fashion. I think that by downing a flying drone they’ve taken a step toward the destruction of missiles via a laser.

Star Trek Tech Comes to Life

In last week’s posting I reiterated my fondness for Star Trek (in case the picture of me between a Vulcan and a Starfleet officer wasn’t clue enough). Gene Roddenberry’s creation was prophetic in many ways. I know that Star Trek-like technology is in use today and has been covered ad nauseum but indulge my whimsy.

• The sliding door: In the 60s a door that opened as you approached it was not commonplace.
• The communicator: Flip open and talk. It’s a bit of a stretch but it certainly seems like a precursor to a flip phone.

Then there’s the tricorder: In Star Trek lore a tricorder is a handheld device used to gather and analyze information. There are two types of tricorder: the medical tricorder and the engineering tricorder.

When I was a kid, my friends and I made our own Star Trek props. One friend took six of his father’s LPs (long playing, 33 RPM records), painted them gold and used them as transporter pads. I was not nearly as inventive (plus, my father would not have been as understanding as my friend’s dad). My contribution was a block of wood tricorder, painted black with numbers and a screen drawn on it that fit in my hand.

We may not be close to a working transporter, but tricorders may be in our future.

According to Gizmag.com, Scanadu, a tech company based at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, is developing a medical tricorder that will be able to measure vital statistics such as blood pressure, pulmonary function, and body temperature.

DVICE reports that Peter Jansen, a postdoc in a lab for "Engineering Non-Traditional Sensors" at the University of Arizona, has developed (from scratch) a perfectly functional Star Trek-style Tricorder. It's a portable sensor system and can measure ambient temperature, humidity, air pressure, magnetic fields, surface temperatures, colors, ambient light level, ambient polarization, acceleration, direction and distance (ultrasonically). It also has a GPS receiver. Jansen has made the plans available so anyone can build it.



Wow! Now this is cool! Do you think there’s a functioning biobed on the horizon?