One of the very fun aspects of writing near future science fiction is researching the weaponry of the future. It all started with my husband laughing at me because I used the term “raygun”.
He was like, “Nobody says raygun, anymore.” Ok. So what do they say? Apparently they say “Plasma” weapon. So I look up “plasma weapon” on Wikipedia and it straight up says, “a plasma weapon is a type of raygun…” Ha! Here’s my cheesy sketch of a raygun.
My Raygun
But I could see his point, rayguns make me think of Mork and Mindy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
As my research progressed, one of the weapons that kept coming up was the rail gun. And sure enough, if a railgun is good, a plasma rail gun is better, right?
Well, apparently, somebody decided to 3D print their own plasma rail gun. Amazing!
That thing fires plasma projectiles at 560 MPH!
One of the more commonly known pitfalls of the rail gun is that it is rather unwieldy and not exactly portable. Well that inventor essentially made it portable. Truly one of the more unbelievable 3D projects I have come across. So the next time you’re at home with a hankering for a little DIY with your 3D printer, just think, you could whip up your own plasma rail gun! And if you really want to go crazy, you could have it shoot ionized plasma bullets, because why not?
Railgun Photo Credit: 1st Cavalry Division Artillery Flickr via Compfight cc