The scene has been part of popular culture for almost half a century. The gigantic space station ‘Death Star’ approaches a planet, a series of beams are fired and They converge at a point where they form a single, much more powerful ray. capable of blowing up a planet. This, which until now was pure science fiction, is now a little less so after a group of Chinese scientists have assured that they have achieved an important advance in the development of a weapon that generates a beam of energy in a similar way to the one that was seen in ‘Star Wars’ (1977). Not to destroy planets, but satellites.
The new high-power microwave weapon combines many small electromagnetic waves to form a large laser beam focused. The progress lies in the process of ‘ultra-high temporal precision synchronization’ which allows the rays to join together and focus on a single point, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
This task is very complicated, since each beam transmitter needs extremely precise location and timing controlsexplains the medium. In fact, according to the research team’s calculations, each microwave vehicle should be deployed with a position error margin of only a few millimeters. Furthermore, the time synchronization error between the vehicles should not exceed the 170 picoseconds (unit of time equal to one billionth of a second).
The Independent, for its part, points out that the Chinese research team can now generate precision among the small lasers that surpasses the accuracy of atomic clocks used in GPS satellites. That is, it is extremely precise.
The new Chinese system consists of seven transmitter vehicles. Tests have shown that this device can disrupt US GPS signals and affect other satellites.
Chinese scientists also equipped each transmitter vehicle with laser ranging auxiliary positioning devices to obtain coordinates at the necessary millimeter level. A main mobile command center organizes control of the beams, analyzes data from various platforms and issues attack orders to transmitting vehicles.
The team of scientists states that the combined power of the rays could be greater than the sum of the individual rays. These weapons are intended for use in space, not on land, sea or in the atmosphere. ANDThis technological development has been possible thanks to the use of optical fibers and, according to SCMP, has allowed weapon system passes military tests.