Re: COLONIAL WEAPONS

"K.H.Ranitzsch" wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brian Bilderback" <bbilderback@hotmail.com>
> > >The real advantage of conventional firearms with cased ammo is that
the
> > >equipment needed to manufacture/maintain them are generally useful
for a
> > >lot of other things and the chemical facilities required for
nitrate
> based
> > >fertilizers can easily produce nitrate based propellants (but not
both at
> the same
> > >time).
>
> What would a Laser rifle need ?
> The body of the weapon - 'Lock stock and barrel' if you wish - would
be made
> of some general-purpose plastic or metal. Easily produced in a
generalized
> hardware factory.
> The energy supply - some high-power rechargeable battery - pretty
useful for
> a lot of purposes.

The energy supply is VERY special purpose as it converts a small amount
applied
over a large amount of time ( from energy storage) to a large amount of
power
applied for a very short time with very small losses in between.  If
there were
a lot of uses for these things they would show up in power electronics
textbooks, and be described in graduate level courses on power
conditioning.
Due to my interest in high powered microwave weaponry, I would have
remembered
them.  The 90% (est.) efficiency of the power supply in your microwave
will not
cut it, despite its similarities.

The energy storage device has lots of uses, but the power supply does
not.

>
> Electronics - again, production can be easily converted from other
purposes

This assumes that every electronic device is based on the one FPGA
design, so
they only need one set of masks and only one chip tester.  Chip
manufacture is
sufficiently specialised (what do they do if chip making machine
breaks?) that
the colony may be designed to employ only a few electronic devices that
are
grossly over engineered.  Electronics are very difficult to produce in a
cottage
industry, as there are no economies of scale to exploit.

>
> Optics - slightly more critical, but again , optical lenses are a
reasonably
> ubiquitous product

Lenses, binoculars, telescopes, cameras-- Yes
Special optical coatings and lenses of peculiar materials that do not
explode
when you hit them with high energy densities-- No

>
> The Laser itself - depending on what type it is, it probably will
require
> some high-purity materials, probably the most critical part. But not,
IMO a
> single-purpose product. Normal Lasers, electronics, chemistry etc. may
> require similar products.
>
> I am not easily convinced that an industrial SF infrastructure able to
> produce modern/SF conventional firearms (as opposed to a blck-powder
weapon,
> which is rather easier) would not also be able to produce a Laser
rifle.

A conventional firearm requires a machine shop and a foundry.  The
Haber-Bosch
process was an economic failure of a way to produce chemical fertilizer.
 It
took off when combatants were running out of high explosives to fill
shells
with, in WWI.

Please remember that my assumptions are based on less than one visit a
year from
outside, possibly none for the first decade.  So long as not everything
fails at
once, the combination of a machine shop and foundry can repair anything
that