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Real Working Lightsabers: Reality or Fantasy? By The Ninja Master It's every Star Wars geek's ultimate fantasy - a real working Lightsaber. We've been playing with the toys for decades, but it's been years since Star Wars came out. With all the scientific progress we've made, is it finally possible to build a real one? First we have to decide what our Lightsaber beam will consist of. Light is the obvious answer, and that means we'll want a laser. We all know what a laser beam looks like, and it just goes in a straight line. It has the cutting properties of a Lightsaber, but the problem lies in containing the beam. Through the use of lenses, we can make beams of light converge on a single focal point. With a short focal point, our laser will be more intense at the point all rays converge, and beyond that point the rays would continue outward and diverge, growing weaker. The laser would be strong enough to cut at the focal point, but also (to a lesser degree) surrounding that focal point, where the rays are still relatively intense. That cutting area would be the Lightsaber beam, which would stop being intense enough to do damage after a certain distance. This isn't quite containing the laser, but it has the same effect. It's not our gorgeous Star Wars weapon, and it has some serious flaws. It won't clash against another Lightsaber, and it won't look a whole lot like Skywalker's glowing blade. It won't sound like it either. Naturally, anything made of light won't make a "whoosh" noise as we swing it. Still, you could chop some aliens in half, and that's a start. It's completely possible to create that focused beam of light, powerful enough to slice through your enemies. Sadly, technology can't yet create a power supply small enough to fit in the handle. In order to pack that much punch, your power source would be way too huge to carry with you. There's more. Lasers, as we know, will bounce off things. That means there's a whole lot of reflective surfaces out there that could reflect your weapon. Swinging your Lightsaber and having the beam bounce all over the place has some obvious drawbacks (most notably, a loss of your favorite body parts.) Plasma Sabers Well, okay, lasers are pretty much out. There's another option, and it's actually better. Plasma. It's in your television, fluorescent lights, and toy Lightsabers. That's not the kind we need, but there are different forms. The Sun is made of plasma, and that's more than hot enough to go through an opponent. That's the kind we want, although it happens to be inherently unstable. Someone already invented the plasma gun, and it's close to what we need. It produces a short jet of plasma, which in some cases is actually hotter than the surface of the Sun. Sounds perfect! We just need that jet of plasma to extend the length of a Lightsaber, and to shoot out from a handle we can hold. Most plasma guns don't reach very far, but that's a problem we can solve with a nice electromagnetic field. If the handle of our Lightsaber produces an electromagnetic field (already used to contain plasma, so we know it's possible) then the plasma jet will extend farther. This is due to there being less space for it to dissipate into. It also gives our Lightsaber the chance, with proper configurations, to repel an opposing magnetic force (say, Darth Vader's Lightsaber.) Of course, if you get near the wrong magnet, you are going to upset that containment field and end up dousing yourself in ridiculously hot plasma. While this concept would take a lot of energy and a constant stream of air (to create the plasma jet), it seems a lot more feasible than a laser based system. Technology is always advancing, and sooner or later we'll be able to make it small enough to work. Computers once filled up entire rooms, and now we're carrying around Laptops that are far more powerful. We're not there yet, but in time, anything is possible. |
           
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