Star Wars Blaster

August 2, 2008

The venerable "Blaster" from the Star Wars universe is the standard ranged weapon of both civilian and militray military troops in the galaxy. A blaster pistol fires small bursts of light-based energy called bolts. These bolts are capable of inflicting an immense amount of damage to it's target and is quite often deadly. While considered to be a very effective weapon, it is also a weapon that created a lot of collateral damage to unintended targets.

Blasters were produced in a number of configurations and were capable of delivering a wide range of damage. Many of the blaster pistols were equipped with a "stun" setting that was designed not to kill it's target but rather incapacitate it temporarily. While blasters are capable of delivering a severe blast, they can easily be neutralized by magnetic shields or deflector shields. A skilled Jedi could also easily deflect these "bolts" using his trusty lightsaber.

Blaster Function

A blaster is a very simple weapon for the time and works by scaling up a beam of light into an incredibly intense burst of optical energy. This intense burst of energy is known as a "bolt." Larger blasters and even blaster cannons worked much the same way and simply produced a larger and more intense bolt of optical energy which would create even more damage.

The mechanics of any size blaster are basically the same, when you squeeze the trigger it will emit a volatile blaster gas into a conversion chamber. In this chamber kinetic energy is used to excite the atoms in the as and the agitated gas is funneled through modules where it is compressed and intensified into a particle beam. A special prismatic crystal then focuses the beam, and passes it through a refinement chamber which sculpts the beam into a compact bolt shape where it is then unleashed on it's enemy.

Crude for the time, yet very effective.