5 Famous Sci-Fi Weapons that They're Actually Building (Cracked)

5 Famous Sci-Fi Weapons That They're Actually Building | Cracked.com

"Rods from God," FTW!!! :evil:

I'm sure 3rd world civilians are delighted the US Army have some new toys. Still pretty cool though.

The US tried to build space based laser weapons in 1983 as a part of their Strategic Defense Initiative against potential USSR nuclear missile attacks. The project was a failure at the time but perhaps now we have more extensive knowledge of how lasers work.

Man it's going to suck to be alive in the next 30 years

It's not being alive that you have to worry about.

Though take Cracked with a pile of salt, they frequently write about complete falsehoods due to their poor research and/or understanding. Does dropping a 100 kilo rod from orbit really give you the energy of a nuke? Doubt it. And if it did then it'd require the energy of a nuke to get it into space in the first place.

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Originally Posted by Xei

It's not being alive that you have to worry about.

Though take Cracked with a pile of salt, they frequently write about complete falsehoods due to their poor research and/or understanding. Does dropping a 100 kilo rod from orbit really give you the energy of a nuke? Doubt it. And if it did then it'd require the energy of a nuke to get it into space in the first place.

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In their defense, they said a tactical nuke. The kinetic energy of a 100 kg object at the orbit of the ISS would be about 3 GJ, which according to Wolfram is about 0.7 tons of TNT equivalent. By comparison, the smallest tactical nuke developed by the US is the W54, which explodes with a minimum of 10 tons TNT. By the way, the infamous daisy-cutter bombs are in the same yield range.

So if a 100 kg 'rod from god' managed to penetrate the atmosphere without losing any speed, it would give a blast roughly equivalent to 1/14 of a daisy-cutter or (small) tactical nuke. A volley of such rods would be comparable to a small tactical nuke. Again, assuming they're sufficiently aerodynamic.

You also clearly underestimate the energy released by a rocket. The Saturn V delivered 119,000 kg to LEO, which given the LEO delta-v of 7.8 km/s, means it produced 3.57x10^12 joules of kinetic energy AFTER drag losses. This is just shy of a kiloton TNT equivalent, or about 1/15 of a Hiroshima.

I wonder how much money it'll take to put and maintain a giant, unreloadable space revolver into orbit that has the same firepower as normal bombs.

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Originally Posted by Spartiate

I wonder how much money it'll take to put and maintain a giant, unreloadable space revolver into orbit that has the same firepower as normal bombs.

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If the US military cared about costs, they wouldn't be operating over 700 overseas bases.

I wanted this :(
http://www.haloreachers.com/wp-conte...ergy-sword.jpg

Where are the terminators?

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Originally Posted by Somii

Where are the terminators?

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You need to have created Skynet first.

That's what they're making, but you'd be surprised to see what they've already made: microwave emitters that make people feel like they're burning, sonic and laser weapons for crowd control. Technology is getting fucking scary. Pretty soon the only way we'll be able to protest is with special glasses, earplugs and suits.