sci-fi vs. fact question..lasers?

Question

If a powerful enough laser was shot in space at a ship, and both were moving, would it punch through the ship like a ballistic weapon or would it drag along the hull?

So a pulse laser would be better, possibly, but how quickly could multiple shots be generated and how far would it go before dispersing (air and space)???

Answer 1

It would depend upon how much power the laser had, how fast and what direction the spaceship is moving, and how reflective the surface of the spaceship was. To heat the surface of the spacecraft enough to melt it, the light has to be absorbed. A laser wouldn't do anything to a perfectly reflective mirror. Of course, no real mirror is perfectly reflective, but the absorbed energy could be cut by a lot.

Regardless of how powerful the laser is, if the spacecraft is moving away from the laser, the beam will be received at a lower frequency than it was transmitted at and therefore will impart less energy to the spacecraft. Likewise, if the spacecraft is moving toward the laser, the laser imparts more energy to the spaceship.

And, of course, the laser would have to hit the spacecraft at the same spot no matter how the spacecraft moved. That would take an extremely good tracking device. The energy from a laser may be intense on a small spot, but if the laser is always hitting a different spot, the energy will be diffused.

Answer 2

Somewhat both. Lasers cut by heating a point on the surface of the target; a hole is melted at that spot due to the intense heat. If the laser is powerful enough to cut through the hull of the ship almost instantaneously, the ship would be quite effectively (though probably not as spectacularly as in movies) destroyed... the atmosphere would be lost and the crew would die when the ship decompressed. If the laser happened to hit the fuel supply, it would probably explode, but otherwise, there would probably be very little to see.

Depending on how long the laser was actually on, and how fast the ships were moving, the cut would be longer or shorter. That is why I said it would be somewhat like both of your options.

Answer 3

If the ship was moving relative to the laser beam, whether it would punch through the hull at a particular point would depend on how much energy the laser beam was able to carry over what period of time- ie, its power. The more power the laser beam carries, the less time it needs to be trained on a particular point on the hull in order to melt through it. In principle, a sufficiently powerful laser played across a space-craft would be able to cut it in two.

Answer 4

As most answers in physics...it depends.

Lockheed Martin and Boeing are jointly working on an airborne laser that will punch a hole into the side of a missile. The kill mechanism for this very large chemical laser is impulse, not heat.

Heat as a kill mechanism is way too slow. Keeping a laser on a missile long enough to cut through it is much more difficult than knocking a hole in it. The missile would pass out of range long before the laser could cut through its skin by heat.

Impulse is a sudden force, like a bat hitting a baseball. The very powerful beam of laser light literally punches a hole in the missile by hitting it. This is one of the characteristics of the particle nature of light...it can deliver impulse.

Answer 5

dependant on the power of the burst, it could take hours to charge for the next shot unless you have a rediculously large generator. and it could only ever smash through something like a ballistic impact if it hits something incredibly flammable, extremely explosive, or if it actually has mass to it. besides, it would need to be in tight quarters to slice through anything. for instance, a laser cutter that is used for manufacture of small electronics is less than a millimeter from the surface of the material it is cutting

Answer 6

what are the speeds and in which direction togather or apart. if you are talking about pulse than yes it will go through the ship and it depends on how fast and long the pulse is. than it would slice the hull for that moment

Answer 7

It would partly reflect from the hull and partly heat up the hull until the hull ruptured and then it would just shine through. So given enough energy, it punches through.

Answer 8

An extremely powerful laser would melt the spot where it hit.
See the pictures at the links.

Answer 9

power distribution is goverened by inverse square law (ie; doubling of distance) so the power per unit area diminishes to P/4 every time it doubles.. same for loudspeakers and light (lumens)..it is really tru!

Answer 10

it would cut right down the center where it hit