Defence scientists say the technology could threaten low Earth orbit satellite networks such as Starlink at an extremely low cost.
Low Cost? It’s 100 Gigawatts. And the inverse square law is still a thing. In fact it’s the thing, the reason most sci-fi weapons can’t exist until we get infinite exponential power sources.
This will be amazing at missile defense and anti-air, however, thoroughly eliminating any reasonably distanced threat.
100 GW means nothing without knowing how long you’ll run it. One second at 100 GW is about 28 MWh, and 1 MWh of electricity in the US costs about $25, so that’s around $700 per second.
Low Cost? It’s 100 Gigawatts. And the inverse square law is still a thing. In fact it’s the thing, the reason most sci-fi weapons can’t exist until we get infinite exponential power sources.
This will be amazing at missile defense and anti-air, however, thoroughly eliminating any reasonably distanced threat.
100 GW means nothing without knowing how long you’ll run it. One second at 100 GW is about 28 MWh, and 1 MWh of electricity in the US costs about $25, so that’s around $700 per second.