I always get delighted everytime my Google Reader announces a new post on Damn Interesting. It has to be the one blog on the Internet I’m most impressed with – the articles are always very inviting, superbly written and an informative read regardless of topic.
This time I read a Damn Interesting post about “The Third Reich’s Diabolical Orbiting Superweapon” (*supervillain music*) that I believe to be one of the most devious weapons I have ever read about. I’ve always found Nazi technology marvellous – their plans were out of this planet and it was almost amusing how the Nazi government readily funded even the most outlandishly bizarre projects at the prospect that it will benefit the Third Reich.
To summarize, the article talks about the Sonnegewehr, which my German skills translated as Solar Rifle or Sun Gun, to generalize a bit. It was essentially a massive space station with a three-kilometre concave mirror that would reflect the sun’s rays onto a point on Earth. The result is destruction on a previously unforeseeable scale, one far more devastating than nuclear weaponry, I’d reckon. The article is a great read, so I recommend reading it.
Star Wars used it as a plot device in the form of the Death Star, which isn’t very different in premise – a ludicrously massive and expensive space station with the ability to pulverize entire planets. This allows the Emperor to cleave his way through systems into galactic domination. Now, if we substitute ‘planets’ with ‘cities’, ‘Emperor’ with ‘Dictator’, ’systems’ with ‘nations’ and ‘galactic’ with ‘global’, you see the Sun Gun.
Before I begin to imagine the American Rebel Alliance throw a nuclear torpedo into a shaft in the Sonnegewehr, thwarting Darth Rommel in the process, I get to the idea of how well it can be used in a movie, or perhaps a video game. Unlike nuclear weaponry, the Sun Gun is essentially is killswitch. Nobody else can develop a Sun Gun after one has been created. The owner of the Sun Gun has instantaneously conquered the world.
The Nazis would have won the war immediately upon completion of the Sun Gun. While a rule under the Third Reich is scary at best, it is even more disconcerting to think that every other nation would be reduced to a submissive slave because of this weaponry. The disgrace of living in such a nation, would be one history has never seen before.
Of course, nothing can explain the astronomical costs of production of such a device. I doubt if it would be met even if all of the money in Nazi Germany were turned to the project. The assembling of such a device also, would have taken at least a decade (if they were lucky), which is more than enough time for the Allies to catch wind of the project and either thwart it or attempt one of their one (which could prove useful in the inevitable Cold War scenario)!
Regardless, it is an interesting thing to ponder on. Also, this is what is going to sap up all my evening now.
What they said.