Sadly, science fiction has lied to you. More specifically, everyone grows up thinking that lasers are bright, colorful and noisy.
Ever since Star Wars redefined the space opera, lasers have typically been depicted as neon bolts of death — it makes sense, as an action movie where all of the guns fire invisible, silent projectiles wouldn't be all that fun to watch. Unfortunately, with the systems becoming more and more prevalent, we must come to terms with the fact that real lasers are the opposite of what we've come to expect: silent and invisible to the naked eye.
Of course, there are some benefits to the bright pew-pew lasers of science fiction: namely, it's a lot easier to tell when the system is actually firing. While modern-day lasers can stop a vehicle in its tracks from a kilometer away, it's hard to tell that anything has happened until the target's been hit. Thankfully, Boeing's found a way around that: if the system itself doesn't make any noise, just add it in manually!
That's right: Boeing is taking a cue from a galaxy far, far away and adding Star Wars sound effects to all of its laser systems.
Speaking with Nature, Boeing electrophysics engineer Stephanie Blount explained:
"The engagements happen quickly, and unless you're staring at a screen 24-7 you'll never see them. So we've built sound in for whenever we fire the laser. We plan on taking advantage of lots of Star Trek and Star Wars sound bites."
It's both hilarious and awesome: considering that Star Wars likely helped inspire many of the systems in use today, it's only fitting that the franchise is being brought in to help and fix one of the system's problems, even if it's just a small tweak.
Currently, the sound effects are set to be added into Boeing's High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator, or HEL MD. The system's already got an impressive track record: the system was able to track and destroy 90 different mortar rounds on its own during a single test. If you think that's impressive, said test took place two years ago — just imagine how far the HEL MD's come since then.
Maybe someday, technology will deliver on the promise of bright green lasers being fired from a giant orbital space station — until then, we'll just have to make do with sound effects.
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