Exploring the ‘Death Star’ space gun America never built
By Damon Poeter
America’s Cold War Death Star
plans never made it into the main computer. Nobody ever had to suss out
a weakness in its defense, and we were spared some upstart cosmonaut’s
boast referencing the Soviet equivalent of womprats and Beggar’s
Canyon. But U.S. defense planners did at one time consider building a
giant Death Star-like gun in space as part of the “Star Wars” missile
defense program, as Warisboring’s Steve Weintz reminded us this week amidst the hullaballoo of the opening of The Force Awakens.
In September, the Aerospace Project Reviews Blog published some fascinating diagrams
depicting “Have Sling,” which aerospace historian Scott Lowther
described as “[a] General Electric design for a gigantic orbital
railgun.” Have Sling was never built, of course. Had it been constructed
and proven workable, though, the orbiting projectile platform would
have easily been “the biggest gun in the solar system,” Weintz noted.
The
enormous space gun wouldn’t have had anything remotely approaching the
firepower to blow up Alderaan. But based on the known size of GE’s
SP-100 reactor, the power plant that would have been used in Have Sling,
the designs describe a space weapon the size of the International Space
Station, per Lowther.
Using pulsed electromagnetic fields to
accelerate conductive projectiles instead of the propellants used by
conventional guns, Have Sling could have theoretically fired bullets
achieving speeds of 35,000 miles per hour—to the extent that “a
projectile as small as a can of beer could vaporize a hardened warhead,”
Weintz speculated.
Anybody for witnessing the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station?
Aside
from the wonder (or horror, depending on your perspective) of Have
Sting’s potential ballistic capacity, the scuttled project boasts
several more intriguing forays into advanced aerospace technology.
The
GE SP-100 reactor can generate 100 kilowatts, Weintz noted, or “enough
for ‘peacetime’ power and station-keeping.” But to generate even more
juice for rapid firing of the Have Sting space cannon in battle
situations, developers were apparently planning on installing a
turbogenerator capable of producing “as much as 90 megawatts” or “more
than twice the generating capacity of America’s futuristic Zumwalt-class destroyer.”
One
potential weak link in the operation of Have Sting would have been
refueling logistics. The weapons platform calls for shielded,
refrigerated liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen stores for its
turbogenerator, which would need replenishing — particularly when the
railgun was being fired frequently. Expensive but not
out-of-the-ordinary during peacetime, but such orbital refueling trips
could prove “challenging” during a “World War III” scenario, Weintz
conjectured.
One element of Have Sting’s specs, which we know next
to nothing about, is its proposed targeting system, which are commonly
kept secret in “[m]ost publicized ‘Star Wars’ concept illustrations,”
according to Weintz.
“Sensor systems on this scale are almost
never depicted in artwork, yet they would be needed. The targets would
be fast-moving, very small and thousands of miles away,” wrote Lowther,
who has filed a FOIA request for more details on Have Sting, but doesn’t
expect much more to be divulged.
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