Will we ever see directed energy satellite weapons or are they just a scifi meme?

GEE YOU'RE REALLY SMART!!! Is that what you want to hear? Are you happy now? Fuck you.

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Satellite weapons were so 2001.

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what if I have a telescope?

So you're basically Neil deGrasse Tyson without the fame, accomplishments, or credibility?

This guy has a point: If you want to target something for a long time (I. E having the satelite positioned locked above the target), then it needs to be in a geostationary orbit, meaning 35.786-ish km away from the surface of Earth. Focusing light or whatever at such a distance for it to have an effect, requires serious amounts of energy, and would seem quite implausible.

The main use of directed energy would be boost-phase and midcourse missile defense at low altitude orbits. Have enough laser satellites to provide a healthy amount of coverage, and it'd work. It would most likely take a fuckton of individual spacecraft, but if we're at a point where space lasers become a viable weapon, launching them should be a non-issue.

Duh, telescopes make small things big, you cant see ultra-violent because it's small.
So obviously you can see it.

already exist you dolt...

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satellites don't exist

This. They’re just helium balloons.

Declared illegal by the UN

>geostationary orbit, meaning 35.786-ish km

FWIW, it's actually 35,786-ish km. It's be awesome if geostationary orbit was only 36 km away. Maybe project Babylon could actually have worked then.

Retard

Wrong. Outer Space Treaty only pertains to WMDs.

Meme 100%

Just as light is diffused by atmosphere so would energy weapons to a considerable degree

Not orbit to surface, no. The atmosphere diffuses so much it's not worth trying. You might see anti-asteroid weapons but most satellite weapons would just be 1-salvo missile platforms.

Polyus was supposed to have a CO2 laser.

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Diffraction, diffusion and the inverse square law will make such a thing impractical at best and impossible at worst unless someone comes up with a sci-fi tier energy source that will allow overcoming of the inefficiencies through sheer power. Such an energy source is the only thing holding many fantasy weapons back, so don't hold your breath.

Why even bother with directed energy weapons when kinetic bombardment is a thing and is equally terrifying?

All D.E.Ws suffer from atmospheric "bloom" on top of the fact that as others have mentioned the atmosphere is just too thick for that shit when you're outside of it. Lasers are a complete meme for anything heavier than anti missile purposes.

But if you plasmify the air fast enough, won't it pinch-confine itself into a plasma tube within which the laser beam can be confined through total internal reflection?

Javelins made from tungsten are more realistic

what's the UN gonna do, write a sternly written letter about it?

There was actually a similar idea that was explored in the 70's I think. The US wanted to put a satellite in orbit that could propel solid metallic rods at high speeds. The kinetic energy upon deliver would be of a substantial "fuck you" level

Kinetics are more efficient.

Not really an option for satellite weapons with their power and heat limitations.

Unless they're cheaper than something that fires a rod from god or some equivalent then not likely.

What if we put some filters on it?

The us has been putting up stealth satallites for awhile now, good luck finding one before it's propellant runs dry

Then someone looked at the price tag, compared it with a regular old ICBM, and decided that whoever came up with this in the first place needed to be beaten like Pvt. Pyle. And nowadays even India has anti sat weapons.

How are you going to get a massive electrical current going through the plasma to make it pinch?

>Thinking this is how lasers work

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What's preventing me from passing current through the plasma filament? Won't it conduct far better than the surrounding air?

>without accomplishments, credibility
Why do you repeat yourself?

Beam divergence really is a serious issue with DEWs. It's the reason why lasers do not have that great of ranges, even in vacuum.

That it needs to go from the ground up into fucking orbit. That'll be a lot of work even if you laser the air into plasma first (but we're doing this because the laser has a hard time reaching down without the pinch) and an utterly massive amount if the charge itself is supposed to rip away the electrons. And you're doing this with one side of your circuit being literally ground, so you have to work form just a positive or negative charge (and then fart out the other side some other way before your satellite gets charged up enough to just suck the intended plasma current back in again), instead of plus and minus.

Yeah, except 35000k isn't exactly far enough for it to be as much of an issue when compared to, say, the atmosphere, which we can effectively mitigate with current lense tech
>Pic related

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well most laser light is diffracted or scattrered by atmosphere, and charged particles are absorbed and reflected by it. microwaves interact with water too much and radio waves aren't absorbed by most materials. gamma and x rays are too easily scattered.

so no. a mass driver (or dropper) would be the only viable option but reloading it would be one expensive pain in the ass.

Probably possible within a few years time, but it's very illegal to utilize space to build a weapons platform that can effortlessly strike anywhere on the planet, since you'd have complete and total monopoly over the aerospace and the near-space area.

This, issue isn't so much distance as it is refraction in atmosphere. Think it's going from surface to space but might be space to surface where refraction isn't as serious compared to the opposite direction and not as much power is needed.

bomb pumped lasers like in space si-fy

rods from god
it's a personal favorite and will probably the first product of asteroid mining. our gravity well fucks with the economics right now, but once we can get the metals direct from the source...

you can direct these nuts

>it's very illegal
"Slap the cuffs on him, boys. He may have the power to put directed energy weapons into orbit, but no one is above the law. Put him in the cell with Epstein."

Anti-missile laser satellites are a really good idea, however, as are laser stations to ablate and deorbit junk.

Won't this just make it more attractive to stick to the atmosphere the entire way, so spaceborne lasers can't hit you?

Not really, because it takes vastly more energy to stay in atmosphere and means going much more slowly, so your missile ends up being slagged by ground or aircraft based lasers instead.

Orbital ion cannons are going to stay science fiction for the forseeable future since it would take a ridiculous amount of energy to get a powerful coherent beam to the earths surface. Such a laser would also be producing a large amount of heat which is difficult to remove in the vacuum of space since you're pretty much stuck with heat transfer through radiation.
Smaller lasers that deal with space junk or hit missiles when they're in LEO would be more feasable.
Also China supposedly already has satellites and obital weapons up that are meant to just explode and throw space junk around to knock out satellite and communication abilities in the even of a major conflict with the US or other western power.
It would be better to have a weapon to deal with a more realistic threat like that.