Lightsabers. How Close are We to Having Them?

Despite our technological advances, lightsabers still present some diverse challenges to our world’s brightest scientists and engineers.

Size is a common preoccupation. As you may have noticed, light tends to travel in a straight line and doesn’t just stop unless it is reflected or absorbed. It’s tough to have some kind of absorber or reflector on the tip of your sword without detriment to the overall ‘Star Wars’ experience.

Aside from that, miniaturization, energy requirements and heat dissipation are all hurdles that have yet to be overcome. Perhaps the biggest theoretical problem of them all, keen observers and avid Star Wars fans will note, is that light beams do not ‘woosh’ through the air and clash with other light beams while giving off epic impact sounds; definitely a big problem, in other words.

In the near future, as power sources come up to scratch, a similar equivalent could be a form of plasma weapon. We already use plasma cutters in industrial applications. The miniaturization would not be far off. Plasma for cutting applications would be in the form super-heated gas, which would be conveniently ionized, and therefore it can easily be contained within a strong electromagnetic field. Clashing two plasma swords together would still be problematic, but cutting through foot-thick blast doors would be a cinch.

In the present, if you absolutely cannot wait, a laser-type apparatus one can acquire without getting involved in bureaucracy is a high-powered laser emitter. For a few hundred, you can be the proud owner of a 1-watt weapon. Your run-of-the-mill class III presentation laser pointer typically does not exceed 5 milliwatts. The 1-watt emitter will pop balloons, set paper on fire, irritate skin, and instantly and irreversibly damage retinas. Sadly, in clear air, the laser beam will not be visible from the side. To see it, you would have to look right into it, at which point….oops.