How does the strength of the Death Star's superlaser compare to the Ringworld's defense system? In reading some of Niven's Ringworld stories, I found that it is defended by a swarm of satellites in close orbit around the central star; these satellites convert the star's entire energy output into an X-ray laser beam.
The system is set to target anything that threatens to approach the Ringworld's inhabited interior surface. The system isn't named, so I termed it a 'Sun Beam'.
Mike Garrity
another Ringworld question
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Illuminatus Primus
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Its limited by the output of a G V star at maximum (its not a Dyson Sphere and 100% efficiency is ridiculous, so we know it must be substantially lower). The Sun's output is approximately 3.8 x 10^26 W. The Death Star's reasonable firepower in order to cause the destruction of highly-shielded Alderaan is around 10^38 W. The Death Star HUGELY outperforms the intensity of this sun beam.
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NecronLord
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The Death Star is more powerful than Niven's sunbeam. Massively so.
I direct you to the beginning of Second Stage Lensman by E.E.Smith Ph.D for a reasonably accurate description of what a sunbeam will do to planets.
I direct you to the beginning of Second Stage Lensman by E.E.Smith Ph.D for a reasonably accurate description of what a sunbeam will do to planets.
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Oh, and the above description of the Ringworld meteor defense is wrong. It works by the Ringworld pulling a gas plume out of the star, and then inducing lasing inside the plume.
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