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Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

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rshow55 - 01:20pm Feb 8, 2002 EST (#11355 of 11355)

Gisterme , and Mazza agree on some things, but there are questions where we may disagree.

I want to deal with them carefully, but if anybody wants to comment about these assumptions, while I'm doing so, I'd like to give them time to do so.

Is resolution that is superb for tracking a target sufficient for hitting it with a laser beam -- and especially, for hurting the target with that laser beam?

and

How good is the "plywood square" assumption -- especially for a target that is reflective? It isn't hard to make surfaces that reflect either radio waves of light waves according to the old rule that "angle of incidence equals angle of reflection." Now, suppose that the 1 meter square happens to be a mirror surface, but is not aligned with the illuminating laser source. What happens? (People who have done interferometer labs in physics courses will know what happens -- there will be no return of light at all -- an alignment is critical.) For the cylindrical part of the missile, if the cylinder is a good reflector, there won't be any return path for radiation either, unless the alignment between illuminating beam and missile just happens to be nearly perfect. For the diffuse reflector case, there will be return -- but not much.

Back in a while. I think we're making progress -- in an area where I feel all responsible Americans, regardless of party, can agree that getting facts straight serves the national interest.

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense