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Sun gun

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The sun gun or heliobeam is a theoretical orbital weapon, which makes use of a concave mirror mounted on a satellite, to concentrate sunlight onto a small area at the Earth's surface, destroying targets or killing through heat.

History

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In 1929, the German physicist Hermann Oberth developed plans for a space station from which a 100-metre-wide concave mirror could be used to reflect sunlight onto a concentrated point on the earth.[1]

Later, during World War II, a group of German scientists at the German Army Artillery proving grounds at Hillersleben began to expand on Oberth's idea of creating a superweapon that could utilize the sun's energy.[2] This so-called "sun gun" (Sonnengewehr) would be part of a space station 8,200 kilometres (5,100 mi) above Earth. The scientists calculated that a huge reflector, made of metallic sodium and with an area of 9 square kilometres (900 ha; 3.5 sq mi), could produce enough focused heat to make an ocean boil or burn a city.[1] After being questioned by American officers, the Germans claimed that the sun gun could be completed within 50 or 100 years.[1][3] Evidence that Japan was also attempting to develop a death ray was uncovered by American forces.[4][5][6]

With the deployment and validation of satellite mega-constellations, their use as a sun gun has also been proposed. Instead of a vast individual mirror, hundreds of low cost reflectors could in theory be synchronized to concentrate solar irradiance and aim it at a target.[7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Science: Sun Gun". Time Magazine. July 9, 1945.
  2. ^ Burke, Myles (February 3, 2025). "'It could illuminate an area the size of a football stadium': How Russia launched a giant space mirror in 1993". www.bbc.com.
  3. ^ "The German Space Mirror". Life Magazine: 78. July 23, 1945.
  4. ^ "Japanese Had 'Death Ray' In Stage of Development". The New York Times. 1945-10-07. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
  5. ^ Fanning, William J. (2010). "The Historical Death Ray and Science Fiction in the 1920s and 1930s". Science Fiction Studies. 37 (2): 253–274. ISSN 0091-7729.
  6. ^ Grunden, Walter E. (2005). Secret weapons and World War II: Japan in the shadow of big science. Modern war studies. Lawrence, Kan: University Press of Kansas. pp. 110–116. ISBN 978-0-7006-1383-0.
  7. ^ Shiga, David. "Space mirrors could create Earth-like haven on Mars". New Scientist. Archived from the original on April 23, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2023.