Home Nanotechnology Physics Space & Earth science Electronic Devices Technology General Science Medicine & Health Published: 14:39, December 01, 2005 Military develops a Star Trek-like phaser
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http://www.physorg.com/news8641.html

First comic strip hero Dick Tracy's wrist radio moved from science fiction to everyday fact and now Capt. Kirk's phaser is headed to the Air Force arsenal.

Air Force researchers say they've developed a non- lethal laser ray gun called the "PHaSR" -- for Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response. The intense laser beam produced by the rifle-sized weapon temporarily disorients its target.

"We picked the PHaSR name to help sell the program," program manager Capt. Thomas Wegner of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate at Kirkland Air Force Base in New Mexico told the New York Daily News. "It's an obvious homage to 'Star Trek.'"

In the famed original 1960s Star Trek television series, the crew of the starship Enterprise carried hand-held "phaser" weapons that could vaporize or stun an opponent.

But the 21st century version of the weapon is designed to only "dazzle" people with its intense laser beam.

Asked by the Daily News what Capt. James T. Kirk might have thought of the new weapon, Wegner replied: "He would think it's rather primitive. But for us, it's pretty high tech."

Copyright 2005 by United Press International

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3.8 out of 5 after 13 total votes not at all 1 2 3 4 5 highly Leave a CommentThere is a discussion of this story at PhysOrgForum entitled: A real phaser?
There are 3 replies in that topic. The last post was on 6-Dec-2005
The first 4 posts are :

On 2-Dec-2005 by jackofshadows
http://www.physorg.com/news8641.html

Actually the real thing wouldn"t be that hard. Have a laser that operates at one of the ionization frequencies of nitrogen with sufficient power to create an ionization path between the phaser and the target and then dump a taser charge down that path. Basic no-wires taser.

Now if you could kick the power way up, which isn"t very likely with current technology, proteins are nitrogen based and, well, I believe you get the idea.

Thought of the first decades ago and wondered why no one hasn"t done anything along those line.

On 2-Dec-2005 by Adnium
How would that work specifically? I am but a mere child and the concept baffles me, please elaborate.
On 3-Dec-2005 by Ghost
Laser Induced Plasma Channel (LIPC)

No-wires taser, as it was put. Ionatron holds the sole patent rights to this weapon, has a government contract. They manufacture non-lethal, & lethal version of this weapon series.
On 6-Dec-2005 by jackofshadows
Great! Not! Oh well, I wouldn't have had the money back then to push a patent through anyway.

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