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Comment on DragonFire: UK fires high-power laser at aerial targets for first time - with 'intense beam of light' able to cut through drones

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CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

I could be wrong, but I don’t suspect that a laser powerful enough to physically destroy stuff at a distance is going to be meaningfully stopped by regular mirrors, because mirrors don’t reflect all the light pointed at them, and as soon as the mirror gets damaged enough to not properly reflect light in the spot the beam hits, it might as well not be there anyway.

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TheChurn@kbin.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
A good mirror reflects more than 99% of incident light, effectively increasing the amount of power the laser needs to destroy the target by a factor of 100.

This isn't the real concern, however. Fog, dust, clouds, and rain are quite common on the damp and dusty sphere we live on, and they would all strongly attenuate the beam power and greatly reduce the effective range.

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- Jaytreeman@kbin.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You're not wrong, but at that power level anything longer than a short pulse is going to vaporize the stuff in the way.
  They probably take that into consideration and pulse the lazer before giving a more consistent shot.
  Clearing out the path before shooting the shot.
  Maybe they have a ring around the primary shot as well. Vaporizing the stuff that could get in the way of the primary attack.
  These people are smart. It's easier to assume they've taken that into consideration
  
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  - Monument@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Off the cuff idea, but thermally ablative coatings that dissolve into light blocking smoke might buy drone operators time to evade - assuming their rotors don’t thin out the smoke screen too much.
    
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- Paddzr@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  But is this the same type of light? We’re talking about pure heat damage, how do mirrors reflect heat?
  
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  - Shadow@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Lasers don’t send heat. Lasers send light energy that is absorbed by the surface and radiates it as heat.
    
    If a mirror was 100% effective it would work, but the tiny bit that bits the backing of the mirror will melt it and then it’ll cascade.
    
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- Zorque@kbin.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Wouldn't all those things also affect the mirrors ability to reflect?
  
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aeronmelon@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
2028: Chinese scientists have developed “supermirrors”.

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