When science fiction meets reality. When the film “Star Wars: A New Hope” was released in 1977, George Lucas imagined a super-powerful weapon capable of destroying entire planets. It’s the Death Star. If this fictional weapon is unlikely to see the light of day in reality, it undoubtedly served as inspiration for Chinese researchers, who have just produced a “pocket” version of this planet killer.
They have in fact just developed a weapon directed microwave, if it does not use lasers to reach its target, this technology, the first tests of which have proven very conclusive, would have the striking force necessary to put any device with an electronic system out of action.
By projecting a very powerful microwave beam, it could deactivate an enemy satellite. In an article from the South China Morning Post, we learn that researchers from the Xia Navigation Technology Research Institute are behind this project.
In the press release that accompanies their discovery, they explain that the installation consists of 7 separate vehicles. They send a whole microwave signal into space which will converge at a single point in order to neutralize a target.
A science of timing
Surprisingly the most difficult thing for scientists was not designing this weapon as such. But rather to succeed in making it aim at a tiny target, hundreds of kilometers away. To achieve this, scientists explain that they have a margin of error in space of the order of a few millimeters. At such distances, it’s like aiming at a bug in Paris from Toulouse.
But it is not only necessary that the microwaves all arrive at the same place, they must also, and above all, hit their target at the same time. The level of “temporal” precision is even more impressive. The scientists explain that they have a window of 10 picoseconds (0.000 000 000 01 second).
For the moment, China has been careful not to explain how dangerous its weapon could be. The capabilities and number of possible shots of such a solution have not been revealed to the general public. But the little information already given to the public shows China’s extraordinary capabilities in this new form of warfare, combining space technologies with land combat.
What applications?
It would be easy to think that a weapon capable of disabling a satellite is less dangerous than a nuclear warhead or a simple rifle bullet. But in reality, the use of satellites has become so extensive that the destruction of a well-chosen target could have apocalyptic consequences.
Such a weapon could attack GPS satellites, putting an end to the tracking systems of ground armies. It could also target communications satellites or defense and imaging systems. For the moment, China assures that it is only developing this weapon for the purpose of testing and protecting its own satellites. She is already looking for the cure for the poison she has just concocted.
