Do you remember the moment in “Star Wars” when the Death Star destroys Alderaan? Eight laser beams converge at a single point to form a super-powered laser that obliterates the planet. It was a memorable scene that demonstrated the unrelenting power of the Empire.
Although it is unclear whether they were inspired by the scene, Chinese scientists claim they have created a new type of microwave weapon that combines several high-powered electromagnetic waves. They can then concentrate them onto a target.
The weapon system consists of multiple microwave-transmitting vehicles that are deployed to different locations. Each of the vehicles fire microwaves with high-precision synchronization. These merge together into a powerful energy beam to attack one target.
This is a lot harder than it seems. Microwaves are narrow beams of energy that need to be precisely aligned to then converge. This means that the timings with which they are fired need to be controlled to within millionths of a second.
According to the research team, each microwave vehicle also has to be precisely positioned to within a millimeter. China’s BeiDou satellite navigation system is capable of providing positioning accuracy to within 0.4 inch (1 centimeter), but that still does not meet the requirements of the new weapon system.
Related: ‘It invites us to reconsider our notion of shadow’: Laser beams can actually cast their own shadows, scientists discover
To attempt to overcome this, laser-ranging auxiliary positioning devices were installed on each transmitting vehicle to achieve the millimeter-accuracy positioning system. The vehicles must also be perfectly level. Any changes in the surface mean that microwave emitters will not be properly aligned.
The firing synchronization has to be within 170 picoseconds (or 170 trillionths of a second). To put this into perspective, a typical household computer takes 330 picoseconds to complete a single processing cycle.
To overcome this challenge, the scientists connected the transmitting platforms using optical fibers to ensure they were properly synchronized. Each of the weapon system vehicles was also directly controlled by a mobile command center.
According to the South China Morning Post, a scientist involved in the project claimed the combined power of the converging microwave beams has a combined effect of “1+1>2” — despite such a claim breaking the law of conservation of energy. Nonetheless, a powerful combined microwave is more useful than multiple smaller microwave sources.
Microwaves cannot operate over long distances as dust and moisture scatter the waves. This can be countered by increasing the power, but doing so presents significant logistical challenges as batteries currently do not have the energy storage capacity to provide that amount of energy.
Quite possibly, the Chinese research team has been able to achieve a converging microwave weapon system in a controlled environment. However, the real world is vastly more chaotic, which will present huge challenges for any technology that relies on such a high degree of precision.