The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Osaka University have been working together to develop a device which converts sunlight into laser-light with four times the efficiency of previous attempts. According to a report out of Tokyo, the team is working on Space-based solar power systems which can collect sunlight in space and convert it into laser light, which is then transmitted to Earth and used for electricity... or to power a massive Death-Ray. The project works by storing sunlight-based energy in plate made from a sintered powder of metals like chromium and neodymium. When weak laser light is shined onto the plate, the stored energy is transferred to the laser where its strength is amplified by a factor of four. In one test, a 0.5-watt laser was amplified to 180-watts by the plates. Scientists have thus far been able to garner 40-percent of the solar energy produced, and they hope to have a system ready for satellite mounting by the
not-too-distant year 2030. Huzzah! [Warning: read link requires subscription]
posted Sep 4th 2007 2:22PM
Can't wait for the laser's beam to miss and vaporize someone's neighbourhood. Remember Simcity 2000?
Something for Mr. Evil :)
It's Dr. Evil. He didn't go to evil med school to be called Mr.
Talk about self fulfilling prophecy. Has anybody seen the Japanese Anime movie Akira? Giant space based laser powered by the sun... hummmm
Looks like good ole asimov might have got at least something in iRobot right :D
And in a few hundred years, maybe we will see a Death Star!
Ion Canon Ready...
:D
If Christian extremists made this, it could be dubbed the "Christ Cannon"
"go with God...." *ZAAP!*
Orrr...
If its manned, it could be dubbed The Watch Tower...
(manned by a tall green alien)
Mate - You got problems. Thank goodness idiots like you aren't running the bloody program.
@David:
Humour w/ references. Now take a deep breath and relax.
References? All I see is your weak sarcasm built from ideas, nothing at all like references.
omg you 2, get a life and quit complaining about ppl's irrelevant post. don't reply to my post either..... assmunch
what if it hits a cloud. does the cloud explode?
no, cloud gets the materia then the satellite explodes
Bahamut is your friend (not in Advent Children...).
i
o
u
I'm pretty sure austin powers 3 had a similar premise
well, we can expect heavy ionization/dissociaton in the atmosphere...
MiniMe Stop humping the laser!
Moonraker anyone?
Isn't it easier to use Solar parabolic collectors and stirling engines to create energy using parabolic dishes or solar power towers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_One) or one of the newest (though more expensive) solar cells which are capable of 42% efficiency (on the planet's surface, let alone in space, since we lose some solar power due to the atmosphere) ?
Just a thought...
one word... night. A satellite in Lagrange 1 (stable position between Earth and Sun) could get 24 hour solar power. the laser would need to be relayed by further sattelites before reaching the ground station, due to the rotation of the Earth, and the tracking would need to be spot on. We would also need to develop a cult of humanoid robots to worship and maintain the beam.
The USA military is surely already on this one.
Spied secret space weapons info from Japanese gvt:
"ohhh, you see, we put BIG American Magnifrying grass in orbit!"
"ooooo. It cook you fast, dead ant! Go, Go, Go"
JAPAN'S CHARGIN ITS LAZOR
"It's the SOL sir!"
TETSUO!!!
KANEDA!!!
(repeat many times...)
Finally we can bring an end to this conflict and destroy Kane's temple!
Prepare the giant "laser".
can we get an unboxing and a hands-on review please.
Not sure how these LASERs would be any more efficient than solar heliostat arrays like STACEE.
Danger, Will Robinson! This is pretty exciting technology, it's the stuff of science fiction.
What happens if you have a few sats up there and you cross the streams?
Dr. Egon Spengler: It would be bad.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Dr Ray Stantz: Total protonic reversal.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Right. That's bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.
What happens to terrorist if I accidentally point this at him? What I'm asking is, will the smoldering zombie pieces still be edible by pigeons?
Maybe they can finally get Osama bin laden. Bush needs to make a surprise trip to japan and ask to use it lol
180 Watts?
The toaster in my kitchen uses more energy than that!
Someone please call Doc Brown at KLondike-54385 and tell him to keep working on his "Mr. Fusion Home Energy Converter" to get it's plutonium flux capacitor to generate 1.21 jigowatts of power.
:-)
a 180 watt laser could probably cut you in half. Laser toaster. Theres no mention of how physically big the device is, so its not fair to be too critical at the moment.
that should read "a laser is not equivenlent to a toaster" dam site removed my equation.
No, no... I like it the way it is. Clearly we need more of these so-called "Laser toasters".
But the real question is... When will the laser toaster be available for home use? I want to toast my bread with the power of lasers!
They don't mention what wavelength or color this laser is. If its infared it won't zap houses. Might not even do that if its a visible laser beam either. 'Course if it does go off course they'd only have to put a ring of mirrors around the original target to reflect the light up to sensors to turn off the laser. But, I'm sure they'll have double, if not triple redundant systems and monitoring stations if these lasers can hurt people. As for photovoltaic cells on the planet, the clouds get in the way to often, and deserts are unstable so building there is expensive. Its probably better to put a satellite in space in the long run, not to mention unlimited realestate up there right now. Haha.
2030???? According to Back to the future 2, we're supposed to have flying cars by 2015. Damn we suck!
Reminds me of Die another Day...
the Japanese are limited from making excessive weapons like N-bombs and a so called death ray
by the US
0.5 watts * 4 = 2 watts and not 180W
not a factor of 4 but more like 360!!!!
Where exactly do they say it multiplies the power by 4? Just curious...
"When weak laser light is shined onto the plate, the stored energy is transferred to the laser where its strength is amplified by a factor of four."
or I am not understanding the wording correctly (in this case, please explain)
Me thinks they have heard the rumblings of Godzilla and Mothra
"In one test, a 0.5-watt laser was amplified to 180-watts by the plates"
So, it this a perpetual motion machine or am I missing something? a watt is a measure of total energy, so if something turns half a watt into 180 watts, they have just pulled 179.5 watts out of their ears. now if they meant it took half a volt or half an amp and made it 180, this would be ok.
I have a problem with this idea. I laud them for coming up with such a creative idea but it seems that there are too many flaws. First of all firing a laser beam from space to earth will have a problem with disassociation of ions as well as a host of problems dictated by Mie and Rayleigh Scattering. Also they did not mention if the wavelength this laser is visible, IR or UV. IR of course really will do nothing at all. Visible would require quite a lot of power i.e. overall wattage. UV requires even more. Also how would they correct for the beam widening? Does that mean they would have to have some sort of collimator up there orbiting as well?
Along with that there would have to be some sort of system that fixates the laser in a geosynchronous orbit that is aimed at a desert based desired capacitor-like or energy absorbing device that can accommodate power of that beam width(w/square area/ ster radian). Moreover, the overall radiation alone from that laser would completely vaporize it's target and surroundings. Think about it that target would have to be cooled with either a huge supply of water, which in the dessert is short to come by unless there is some sort of huge aquafir beneath that surface or it needs to be cooled by some sort cryogenic material. That cryogenic target would need some sort of vacuum pump system that will also require lots of energy. All in all too many little problems.
Also I agree with the comment above me about the mirror would be far more efficient if it were parabolic. Other wise you lose energy from not collecting the straylight radiation.
I don't think I have enough room in this commenting box to express how science fiction this idea is.