Remember the time when you were in? “Star Wars” When the Death Star destroys Alderaan, what happens? The eight laser beams that are converged at one point form an incredibly powerful laser which obliterates Alderaan. This was an unforgettable scene which demonstrated the power of the empire.
Chinese scientists have claimed to create a new microwave weapon, which combines multiple high-powered electromagnetic wave. It is not clear if they were inspired from the film. Then they can focus them on a specific target.
The weapon system consists of multiple microwave-transmitting vehicles that are deployed to different locations. The vehicles are synchronized to fire high precision microwaves. They combine into one powerful beam of energy to strike a single target.
It’s a lot more difficult than you think. The beams of narrow energy in microwaves must be aligned precisely to converge. The timing at which the microwaves are fired must be precisely controlled down to millionths.
The research team says that each microwave vehicle must also be precisely placed to within one millimeter. The BeiDou navigation satellite system in China is able to provide positioning accuracy of up to 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) but this still doesn’t meet the requirements for the new weapon systems.
In order to combat this problem, laser-range auxiliary positioning devices have been installed on every transmitting vehicle in an attempt to obtain the millimeter accuracy positioning system. Vehicles must be level. If the surface changes, then it is likely that the microwave emitters won’t be aligned properly.
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Fire synchronization must be done within 170 picoseconds (170 trillionths of second). This is compared to a household computer that takes about 330 picoseconds for a processing cycle.
In order to overcome this problem, scientists used optical fibers in connection with the platforms transmitting signals. This ensured that they were properly synced. A mobile command centre was directly in control of each weapon system vehicle.
The South China Morning Post A scientist who was involved in this project stated that the power combined of converging beams of microwaves had a combined impact of “1+1>2”, despite the fact that such a statement violates the law of energy conservation. A powerful microwave combined with multiple smaller sources is still more effective.
Dust and moisture can scatter microwave waves, making them impossible to use over long distances. The only way to counter this is by increasing power. However, doing so would present significant logistical difficulties as current batteries do not possess the capacity for energy storage that can provide such a large amount of energy.
The Chinese team of researchers may have been able achieve a microwave weapon converging system in controlled conditions. The real world, however, is chaotic and will pose a huge challenge to any technology that depends on this high level of precision.
