>Shiva Star was also used to develop an experimental weapon known as MARAUDER for the SDI effort between 1989 and 1995. The idea appears to have been to create compact toroids of high-density plasma that would be ejected from the device using a massive magnetic pulse. The plasma projectiles would be shot at a speed expected to be 3000 km/s in 1995 and 10,000 km/s (3% of the speed of light) by 2000. A shot has the energy of 5 pounds of TNT exploding. Doughnut-shaped rings of plasma and balls of lightning exploded with devastating thermal and mechanical effects when hitting their target and produced pulse of electromagnetic radiation that could scramble electronics, the energy would shower the interior of the target with high-energy x-rays that would potentially destroy the electronics inside. The tests cost a few million dollars a year. The project become classified and may or may not have been scrapped at some time after 1995 because of problems keeping the plasma projectiles stable for the distances required by orbital weaponry.
could this be strapped to a spaceship as a main weapon or would it attenuate too fast?
It sounds like it would be more useful as a space propulsion system, if you had a sufficient power supply.
>>60755280
Neat.
I guess we really could tell those space niggers to fuck off.
>speed of an electron = 2200 KM/s
>speed of this bastard= way more
Holy shit.
>>60755280
I wonder what the target was in the middle?