On Wed, 18 Oct 1995, Andrew Stodden wrote:

Up until here, you get it right, but try a micro-particulate
superconductor instead, it's more flexible and provides an even coat.
Zoned off into regions, and wired to the reactor (I'm assuming a fusion
torus reactor as the power supply) these zones can absorb all incoming IR
and energy based weaponry. You forget that superconductors are just that,
super conducting, and more than just electricity can be conducted. So heat
can be channeled into the reactor, and turned into electricity (which can
then be used/stored/disposed off, depending on current needs/conditions).
This also means that an area can be 'charged' and any object with magnetic
potential must have a kinetic energy greater than the field strength of
the zone, or it will be repeled. (this also works in reverse, a
superconducting 'bullet' will pass right through, but hopefully will not
have the properties need to make a good style of munition.)

I did not come up with it.  The technitions did.

This 'aplied' magnetic field os the simple form of a magnetic shield
system, the most energy consumptive of all type of shielding, and also the
easiest to make.

I would imagine so, anyways, the simulation report should be posted by now.

High reflectivity is good, but what about a photo-voltaic coating. Turning
the laser back into electricity and absorbing it. Even a coating that
burns off would be useful, as the material burns away, it takes energy with
it, and a sustained blast at any one point would be needed to punch through
to the armour underneath, which is reflective. Of course, this would be
susceptible to scratches and othe impacts, but is low cost enough that it
doesn't mater (just spray on a new coat, you can even have a small 'can'
of it stored somewhere for quick touchups)

I'll pass the comments along to the department.

Except for the fact that only have access to material data in most cases,
I've simulated dozens of different systems and for my money collapsed
matter is still the best bet.

Collapsed matter? Here's how you make some: 

1) Harness the output of an average yellow sun for one year, store, and set
aside for later use.

2) Take the piece to be collapsed, and make it out of a pure iron at about
twenty times size

3) Suspend piece in a magnetic field, heat, and bombard with ionized
hydrogen, to align the crystal structure. (make sure you use only pure
ionized hydrogen)

4) Take the energy you have stored, and in less than one millionth of a
second, transfer the energy to the piece.

5) Voila, done. isn't theoretical math wonderful?

Oh yeah, why iron? It's cheap, and stable when collapsed (so is gold) so
it doesn't spontaneously collapse whatever touches it, or re-expand to
it's original size, shedding the energy you placed with it.

How one actually would turn this into a viable manufacturing process is
beyond me, so don't ask.

I had people using actual available materials, not theoretical ones.

Ichinohei Hitomi
Hitomi@escape.ca