Blaster (Star Wars)
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In the fictional Star Wars universe, the most common weapon is the blaster. This category of plasma-converting laser-firing rayguns includes various handheld pistols, mounted rifles, and other powerful firearms.
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[edit] Description
The blaster pistol is the standard ranged weapon of military personnel and civilians in the galaxy. It fires cohesive bursts of light-based energy called "bolts". Blasters come in a variety of shapes and sizes, delivering a wide variety of damage and range capabilities. Blaster bolts do not traverse air or space at the speed of light but rather at a slow enough rate to have visible motion in the Star Wars films, but fast enough that they cannot be dodged on foot or in spaceships, except those of exceptional reflexes, such as Jedi, who can also use lightsabers to deflect the bolts. Blasters also have limited range compared to laser beams. For example, in A New Hope, a TIE fighter is clearly seen from the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon but is out of range of the ship's blasters. Many blaster pistols have stun settings that incapacitate a target, rather than inflicting physical damage. Blasters deliver a searing concussive blast, but can be foiled by magnetic seals and deflector shields.
The blaster received its name from the large flash it makes when fired. Certain accessories such as flash-suppressors can be added to the blaster's barrel for undetectable usage in dark areas. Others like noise-mufflers also help maintain a blaster's stealth, muting the distinct piercing sounds.
Blasters can be very powerful. Han Solo's DL-44 blaster pistol was seen blowing torso-sized pieces of concrete and metal during a docking bay shootout. They have a tendency to fill rooms with smoke from vaporized metal. They also cause white-hot shrapnel and sparks that makes even a near miss fatal. However, some metals are resistant to blaster bolts, often causing deadly ricochets.
[edit] Blaster types
- Blaster pistol - small laser gun that is usually easy to conceal and semi-automatic
- Blaster rifle - any of various guns that may range from large, long-distance sidearms to military sniper laser rifles
- Blast/blaster cannon - a bulky handheld blaster that fires several bolts at once
- Repeating blaster - A large blaster rifle that can fire bolts at a very fast rate, similar to a machine gun.
[edit] Technology
The basic blaster technology of intensifying a beam of light into a deadly bolt is scalable, and largely the same despite the differences in weapon types and sizes. The interior mechanisms of a tiny hold-out blaster, a blaster pistol, a large blaster rifle, and a turbolaser cannon are based on the same theories and principles. A squeeze of a trigger emits volatile blaster gas into a conversion chamber, where it is excited by energy from the weapon's power source. The agitated gas is then funneled through the actuating blaster module, where it is processed into an intense particle beam. A prismatic crystal focuses the beam, and passes it through a refinement chamber which galvanizes the beam into its final bolt shaped like a cone, similar to the shape of the ballistic coefficient.
[edit] How represented in the movie studio
Most of the blasters used in the Star Wars movies are existing real world machine guns and pistols redressed to appear futuristic. Many of the weapons have a small explosive charge that provides the muzzle-flash on-camera (as can be seen on Princess Leia's imperial blaster ejecting spent cases in the escape from the Death Star-scene), though the laser bolt is animated in post-production.
