Why doesn't the SGC have laser weapons?

[captainpash]

Why can't they use adapt the technology and make them earth style? I mean it might be just a special effects issue with money due to the fact that this is a TV show or was there an episode that I missed where they explained why they could not have an earth laser weapon even on promethus or the deatlus.

[NowIWillDestroyAbydos]

Why can't they use adapt the technology and make them earth style? I mean it might be just a special effects issue with money due to the fact that this is a TV show or was there an episode that I missed where they explained why they could not have an earth laser weapon even on promethus or the deatlus.

The Seige Part 3. The Asgard didn't want the their weapons on our ships because they didn't want them to be used against them

[captainpash]

Well, not just asagrad why can't they grab some modified gold weapons?

[LtColCarter]

Well, not just asagrad why can't they grab some modified gold weapons?

Modified gold weapons? I prefer platinum myslef! But...I dunno why they haven't adapted any goa'uld weapons.

[Mr Prophet]

Modified gold weapons? I prefer platinum myslef! But...I dunno why they haven't adapted any goa'uld weapons.

Good against Cybermen. But the real question is 'why would they adapt Goa'uld weapons'? Earth weapons have always been shown to be superior.

[helio9]

Goauld weapons seem to have a very, very, very long life, so ammo isn't a concern which is something that guns can never match.

I think that eventually, once all the bugs are worked out, because of that one trait alone energy weapons have the potential to be superior to guns, but for the time being, the guns we posses have capabilities far greater than anything we've seen from the Goauld or anyone else.

I mentioned this in another thread, there is also potential to "tune" energy weapons out of the visible and audible spectrums of light and sound, effectively making them the perfect covert weapon. But then again, viewers wouldnt get to see cool weapon animations, so thats no good.

[captainpash]

goa'uld weapons are just cooler, and I think that it would be easy to speed up how fast you can fire a laser. If you do that you can have the same fire rate with better range and fire power.

[Jarnin]

goa'uld weapons are just cooler, and I think that it would be easy to speed up how fast you can fire a laser. If you do that you can have the same fire rate with better range and fire power.

Uh, you can fire laser pulses way faster than you could fire the Goa'uld plasma weapons. I've seen lasers that pulse thousands of time a second, and I've read about lasers that can pulse as fast as 0.027 picoseconds (A picosecond is a trillionth of a second).

The problem with lasers is that, contrary to what you see in sci-fi, you wouldn't see any beam at all. Lasers require a medium to be able to see the beam; the medium (like dust, water vapor, or smoke) scatters the light which makes the beam visible.
No cool beam means no cool SFX, which means no cool eye candy for the visual effects nerds. That's why lasers (and other beam weapons) have a visible beam in every sci-fi story ever made. In fact, just about every special effect shown to protray some weird energy is bogus; you simply can't see most forms of energy, but that doesn't make for good viewing.


They could mount a big honking laser gun on Daedalus though. If the Asgard aren't going to share weapon tech, then you'll probably see something coming down the pipeline soon. They've already shown how ineffective missiles are for long-range weapons, and the rail guns aren't really powerful enough to be used as a primary weapon.

[immhotep]

the asgard had a laser battery on the promethius, according to the specs i have for the promethius out of a magazine. maybe they just didnt think they done the job.

[SGRanger06]

the asgard had a laser battery on the promethius, according to the specs i have for the promethius out of a magazine. maybe they just didnt think they done the job.

Which magazine and got any more nifty info like that?

[immhotep]

it was the stargate official DVD collection magazine. i got some stuff on Zats, the stargate adn the telchak device but thats it

[SGRanger06]

Yeah now that i've been thinking about it, I do remember hearing somewhere (I think in one episode) someone saying basically the Prometheus had Asguard weapons.

[Avatar28]

Well in disclosure Thor DID beam down and say he was just checking out the installation of new asgard designed engines and weapons on board the Prometheus. BUT since we've seen no further signs of said weapon and especially with their conspicous absence from the Daedalus and what Caldwell said, I'm inclined to believe that he came over and was just saying that to help his buddy Jack out (I got the impression the whole thing with Thor was a show put on for the diplomat's benefit).

As for laser weapons, part of the problem is that it's hard to get a significant amount of power onto a target, especially through an atmosphere. Thinks like smoke, fog, humidity, haze, etc all serve to interfere with laser weapons.

It's also hard to make a really high power weapon like you would need in capital ship combat, especially against the more advanced races. Lasers aren't especially power efficient and currently the only way we have to generate large power is via a chemical laser (which are big and bulky) (something like the airborne laser the military is testing for shooting down missiles from a large distance). Solid state lasers with their lower efficiencies produce more heat which much also be disposed of. It's only been recently that the the RL military has figured out a possible way to do it and even then the weapons would be more fighter level.

[general ben]

if we don't have one by season 10 i will be very very very angery/disappionted we have a goa'uld in our possesion now who we can force to help us make an energy based weapon for us. I also think that energy weapons are better than our conventional weapons only cause we can have unlimited ammo with energy weapons.

[dosed150]

energy weapons cant have an unlimited power source they must have to replace batteries every so often