WHAT IF PLASMA WEAPONS WERE REAL? - Halo Science
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In Halo, plasma weapons are used by the alien forced called the covenant and come in both hand held, stationary, and shoulder mounted variants with a devastating effect on soft targets and shields alike, but what if plasma weapons were real? Plasma usually is only present in very low pressures such as florescent light bulbs and in very high pressures, such as the sun. Plasma is a ionized gas constituting of positive ions and free flowing electrons. Because of it’s intrinsic properties, harnessing plasma for military applications would be very difficult.
The covenant have a couple different plasma weapons, but first let’s look at projectile class plasma rifles. This includes the plasma rifle, plasma pistol, and plasma turrets. The problem with plasma is the low density and mass. Due to air resistance, the plasma shot would expand, increasing its surface area, and cool off. When plasma cools, the electrons are pulled back to the nucleus and the plasma transforms back to a gas state. The device would essentially be a glorified air launcher. In the game, the plasma pistol shoots at a low velocity of XYZ. Assuming the heat transfer and expansion issues were neglected, at that speed, the plasma would only go about XYZ. That’d be like getting hit by a really really hot baseball made of gas.
From a high level review, it’s pretty evident that the rifle ammunition tanks would be bulky, the magnetic gas energizer would be expensive, and the performance would be underwhelming. This is likely why the covenant developed weapons such as the carbine and needler. Solid projectiles are not only easier to produce, but they perform better in environments with atmospheres.
Moving over to another covenant weapon utilizing plasma technology is none other than the plasma grenade. The plasma grenade is an interesting idea because it utilizes plasma technology at all of its strengths. A solid outer shell holding the high pressure plasma inside. With a magnetic field or heat generated from a forced chemical reaction inside, the grenade would generate large pressures, ultimately causing it to explode and spray magnetically charged plasma to the surrounding areas. The outside of the grenade would get very very hot, causing the outer paint and materials to catch on fire and glow. On impact with flesh or composite armor, it would be hot enough to melt and potentially stick to the recipient. With temperatures ranging from a few hundred degrees upwards to a few hundred thousand degrees, you wouldn’t want to a plasma grenade if it went off. It’s devastation continues as combustible materials nearby would burst into flames. If one of these went off in a residential area or near an ammunition dump, the effects would be devastating.
Although plasma weapons do lack some of the properties that define an effective weapon system, when harnessed in the proper fashion, they can be quite devastating. One attribute of plasma that wasn’t explored were the magnetic properties of plasma. It’s likely that plasma weapon’s effectiveness on energy based shields is attributed by it’s magnetic charge, leaving room for some interesting research on energy shields. But that was just a quick look at plasma weapons and if they could actually exist.
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