Meet the MEDUSA

Are you disillusioned with Ionatron and all those other far-fetched weapons that just don't seem to go anywhere? Are you looking for a new ray gun that will blast missiles out of the air? Well, earlier this week I heard from Dr. Robert Adams, CEO Optima Technology Group, which produces the MEDUSA Mobile Energy Device. Dr. Adams is angry because some time back, he wrote to Ionatron offering to cooperate: "Like your company, we own patented DE technology that works. We further feel that your company's position in Directed Energy Weapons as well as your stock price would drastically improve by acquiring and/or taking the exclusive rights through a partnership with our company of our patented technology," he wrote.

Ionatron gave him the brushoff.

What do I think of MEDUSA? One website describes the company's founders as consisting of an "ex-US Navy seal, the man who invented holographic storage, a games software programmer and a matter/anti-matter ray-gun which, had it been in existence on September 11, might have prevented at least some of the devastation …"  Apparently, inspiration for MEDUSA came to its inventor from a combination of crop circles and an article in Aviation Week & Space Technology (which, I swear, is probably where most weapons ideas come from).

They also have a patent, a website, and a nifty graphic I've inserted below. In the wild world of privately-produced directed energy weapons, that certainly puts them in the game, I would think (more details on their technology below).

The technology for the ray-gun is as follows:
Normally, the electrons are collected or recaptured at the end of the klystron, a specialized vacuum tube. But by allowing them to stream freely to the high power microwave and high energy laser assembly, they’re turned into potentially lethal projectiles able to instantly destroy inorganic and organic material.

The klystron provides both the source of a high energy light speed electron particle beam, and a synchronous radio frequency so the electrons can align with the microwave transmitter output.

The main purpose isn’t only to use the microwave and laser electromagnetic fields (EMF), but also to provide a waveguide for keeping the electrons bunched together.

In normal air, the laser causes them to ionize, creating a linear circularized plasma field. But lasers bloom, or defocus, in air containing particulate matter, i.e. rain drops, dust or fog, and that, in turn, dramatically reduces their effectiveness. So the laser’s alternate purpose is to allow the electrons to move through the weapon assembly, safely preventing short circuiting of the electrons. And if the weather is good, the laser by itself will have an added deadly effect with high energy photon bombardment.

The company also envisions non-military uses, like cutting off pieces of asteroids.

MEDUSA appears to be a popular name for directed energy weapons. There's the MEDUSA I wrote about yesterday, a high-energy beam weapon one company hopes could destroy tanks and planes. And then there's another MEDUSA, a nonlethal microwave weapon that was briefly funded by the Navy that uses "silent audio" (the auditory effect from microwaves). In other words, it makes you hear things in your head:

Hyper_microwave_22_gr The main goal of the Phase I project wad to design and build a breadboard prototype of a temporary personnel incapacitation system called MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio). This non-lethal weapon is based on the well established microwave auditory effect (MAE). MAE results in a strong sound sensation in the human head when it is irradiated with specifically selected microwave pulses of low energy. Through the combination of pulse parameters and pulse power, it is possible to raise the auditory sensation to the “discomfort” level, deterring personnel from entering a protected perimeter or, if necessary, temporarily incapacitating particular individuals.

The idea of the "Voice of God" weapon (a weapon that makes you hear voices in your head) has been around for a while, and this small business contract was but one one modest, and likely unrelated, offshoot of other microwave-auditory effect research. The company stated at the end of "phase one" of this research: "An operating frequency was chosen - Hardware requirements were established (commercial magnetron, high-voltage pulse former) - Hardware was designed and built - Power measurements were taken and the required pulse parameters confirmed - Experimental evidence of MAE was observed."