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Approved Submission [Universal/Everybody]: A basic guide to plasma

OsakanOne

Inactive Member
Retired Member
Submission Type: An idiot's guide to plasma.
Submission URL: https://wiki.stararmy.com/doku.php?id=plasma

Faction: Nope
FM Approved Yet?: None
Faction requires art? No, but its there anyway.

For Reviewers:
Contains Unapproved Sub-Articles? Not as far as I know.
Contains New art? No.
Previously Submitted? No.

Notes:

I need your help here guys: I'm going to be expanding this to include examples. I'll also be updating it shortly to explain and describe plasma engines shortly. I want to spend about a week or so making this submission sweet, understandable by anyone, well illustrated and well cited with lots of examples.

Olympians. Athletes. War heroes. You're here because you're the best.

Now let's do some science, people.
 
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This seems like a promising start.

There's a mention that the list is of "first-generation plasma weapons". That implies a second-generation. Might I ask what this entails?

Each category has a letter in parenthesis which seems intended for nomenclature. How is it to be used afterwards?

There's some science jargon in there I don't pretend to fully grasp, but I think it's unavoidable considering the article's focus. For laymen, the important part is - after all that jargon - showing them what they end up with.

I'd be interested in elucidating the behavior of plasma both in an atmospheric environment and in space (how an user is affected by the venue). I usually see it referenced as a directed-energy weapon and its delay-to-impact is often equated to speed-of-light, through the visuals of the packet doesn't seem to support that, so having some idea of the delay-to-impact and effective ranges in planetary and space warfare could be useful.
 
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There is another way to use plasma, missiles. I can think of 2 ways how that can go about.

1) A tokamak reactor keeps spinning the plasma in missile and carries it all the way to the target until it is breached. Then it sprays the plasma all over the target.

2) On impact generation of plasma. You punch a huge amount of energy into an on-board gas canister and create plasma on impact.

The first one will be interesting as it can carry a huge amount of plasma, either generated when it is in the launcher or on route to the target (possibly the further the target is away, the more destructive it is for on route generation). The 2nd will require a hellacious amount of instantaneous energy. But that is what we have aether taps for.

As for plasma delay to impact, it all depends on what the designer wants. That is the joy of plasma. You can go all the way as low as 10% of lightspeed (lightning strike) all the way to 0.9c (EMP pulse-although this cheats by using the earth's magnetic field interaction as a booster). Range is also the same thing. It all depends on the amount of power you shove into it and how you shape the power that you fed it.
 
Fred said:
This seems like a promising start.

There's a mention that the list is of "first-generation plasma weapons". That implies a second-generation. Might I ask what this entails?
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Here.


Could be. I'll have to remember this and take a crack at it when I've had lunch. Thanks for the suggestion. I have some trouble wrapping my head around visuals in space and I'm not as well versed in munitions kinetics terms and effects as a lot of you are so I'm going to need you to go into a bit more detail about the kinds of things you'd like and how you'd like them shown while I plug the math.


Right but these are all warhead style applications. I mean, if you strip away the fancy delivery system, you're still using existing types as far as I know. Should I add a section for delivery systems, then detail magnetic confinement launchers, missiles, etc?
 
I'm about in the same position. There are a few things I just got to understand, and they mostly apply to delay-to-impact.
 
While looking up plasma style weponry for m own purposes, i found a gu that looks like he knows what he is talking about.

Assuming you could master plasma weaponry, a single shot could take down a whole platoon of non PA infantry b literally flashing their insides to steam and making them explode without even hitting them, plus lighting the country side on fire, and possibly killing the one firing the gun as well, like playing Russian roulette. If you fire one and live, you're awesome. If you die, well, shit happens.

Any ways this guy seems like he knows what he is talking about. Seems to me 'beam' plasma would be fired using a laser to ionize the atmosphere to have a path for the plasma to follow. Not sure about the rest, I hear there is some plasma shape that generates its own magnetic feild on youtube, but for short short distances.

Actually i seem to have found a link
 
A single shot of any weapon large enough can take out a whole platoon of non-PA infantry. Its called weapon classes. And plasma weapons generally that can do that need a powerplant that's too big for an individual to carry and has cooling and protective requirements unshielded personnel can't really meet.

As for beam plasma, we do a huge amount of combat outside of an atmosphere and why the hell would you be ionizing an atmosphere with a laser when you could just use a laser of that output as your damn weapon and have a huge reduction in energy translation losses? Pushing plasma through a charge-trap assembly like a railgun is WAY easier than pulling it along with an ionised atmosphere. At best you'd get what, a slight accuracy improvement from what you're proposing - and a forced wake between self and target?

Generally, plasma weapons are used on armored platforms against other armored platforms, not by fleshbags at fleshbags. This is your power-armor, your frames, your full blown mecha, your fighters and your starships.
 
Osakan, the laser isn't to push the plasma, it is to evacuate the air in the flight path, so you don't really need to push everything into the beam, just enough to generate a "pseudo vacuum", then slam the main "bolt" through the pathway. In theory. Even lasers use something similar to account for atmospheric shimmer. It is just an efficiency and accuracy improvement method, not a propulsion system. Plasma is a bit like a gas, so you don't want it to "splatter" when it hits air. Kills the range. Of course, this is hardly the only possible method when you have a lot of energy to play with.
 
@Doshii Jun: Osaka doesn't have a working PC at the moment, their only net access is via cell phone. Probably won't be any updates until at least next month.
 
Oh hell, and I went and posted all those bumps ... ugh. I'll go take them down. I thought she was PC'd again. Thanks Sis.
 
She was. And then PC kablooie Mk 6.0 or whatever happened. She has utterly terrible luck with computers.
 
Aendri said:
She was. And then PC kablooie Mk 6.0 or whatever happened. She has utterly terrible luck with computers.
Click to expand...
I live in an area of the world with great humidity and temperature variation. Yot should also note the same computer has been on and off for a few years.

I finally have a new machine. The display will arrive shortly after a move this week.

Fear not: I shall return in around a week or so.
 
Okay, I need a refresh. What needs doing?

My move is Tuesday. Monitor any time about then.

what do?
 
@OsakanOne You need to take the information here and then transfer it over to the article you have presented here. Might also want to note that certain kinds have only been developed by the Lorath, since I think they have the best mastery of plasma in the setting.

Edit: Other than that someone else will have to chime in and make suggestions.
 
Done (I think?). Working on a phone is still hard, even with a keyboard since it doesn't handle large documents very well and a lot of advanced selection and editing tools (m-muh multiple paste buffers, multi-documents, collated windows) aren't available.
 
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