Science: Cold Plasmas

Ever think that Star Trek and Star Wars technology is beyond our reach, well maybe it’s time you reconsider…

Cloaking mirrors

A nearer-term application is cloaking. With the proper adjustments, a plasma can be made into a kind of energy mirror, reflecting back or away incoming electromagnetic waves, such as those emitted from ground-based radars. In essence, any spacecraft outfitted with this kind of plasma field would be completely cloaked from the probing attentions of radar operators.

"The idea is to deflect or absorb the energy completely," Laroussi said. "If you absorb the energy --- completely dissipating it within the plasma --- the radar doesn't see anything. Nothing reflects back."

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Space Cold Plasmas