NOTE: If this proves to be 'verboten' my full apologies.

I was going through a library dump sale and picked up a coffee-table book on 'space warfare' ('The Shape of Wars to Come:The Hidden Facts Behind the Arms Race in Space', David Baker, Patrick Stephens Ltd, 1981), basically its a quickie (as for how quick there are only two photos of Space Shuttles that don't show them being built, one is of the first launch of Columbia, the other is a launch practice using Enterprise.).

The book is typical late-70's early-80's alarmism about Soviet capabilities in the realm of space warfare. Chapter 7 (The Ultimate Threat, pgs 147-166) contains a somewhat lurid tale of the supposed Soviet supremacy in the field of Particle Beam Weapons, with secret labs at places like Semipalatinsk & Sarova, mysterious 'nuclear debris' detected in 1978 over Alaska and concludes with the vision of space based Particle beam weapons scouring the Earths surface of life while leaving buildings intact.

Curiously the Russians are credited with having a ground based system 'ready to go' while the US are the ones supposedly working on a space based system under the codename of 'White Horse'.

The book itself has no references and so I have no way of knowing where to start to run down the truth or otherwise.

Has anyone else done some digging into this and would they be willing to share?

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We all know those Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

John Sladek, The New Apocrypha, pg 34.

The Journal of the British Interplanetary Society had a good history of the Soviet counterpart to "Starwars" a few years back. I think that they called it Astrofizika.

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"The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head" Terry Pratchett

This predates Regans 'Starwars', the book still refers to Carter as US president, my guess it was written in 79/80, all the Soviet developments supposedly took place between 75 and 79.

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We all know those Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

John Sladek, The New Apocrypha, pg 34.

It seems to have been a mistake by Major General George J. Keegan, head of Air Force intelligence, according to this site;
http://www.fas.org/spp/eprint/keegan.htm

But I have no data on the reliability of that source.

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Orion's Arm . The Starlark . Voices: Future Tense . OA Flickr set

I've found an on-line source, not nearly as detailed as the JBIS paper, though:
http://www.oook.info/dyson/sdi.html

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"The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head" Terry Pratchett

Interesting, he's the guy who wrote the forward to the book in the OP, I thought it was a shill for Rockwell International, the people who built the shuttle. An RI successor (Star-Raker) to the shuttle gets a big push, both in the intro scenario (pgs 8 & 9) and the last chapter (Star Raker, pgs 167-174). Now I'm wondering if Keegan had a bigger hand in writing the book than it appears at first glance.

I find it strange that the US would have failed to recognize nuclear-thermal engine tests for what they were, surely they still had the files left over from NERVA?

As to the accuracy of the linked document, not sure, but anyone who includes 'Dr Strangelove' references without mentioning them should be taken with a grain of salt...

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We all know those Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

John Sladek, The New Apocrypha, pg 34.

As far as I can remember, all the projects mentioned in the on-line link were described in greater detail in the JBIS paper, which gave a lot of reference sources, nearly all of which were Russian.

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"The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head" Terry Pratchett

Oops. I should have made it clear, I was referring to the FAS report, while I fully understand the authors point, I also recognize the slant of his writing (its as easy to spot as the slant in the book in the OP) but I thought mentioning the "mine-shaft gap" was laying it on a bit thick.

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We all know those Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

John Sladek, The New Apocrypha, pg 34.

I recall reading about the Soviets attempting to utilize pulse-power technology (detonate a conventional explosive in a metal sphere to harvest its energy, like a giant version of the MythBuster's gunpowder engine) to power a particle beam weapon. Apparently, they did a few tests in underground facilities, but nothing every came from it.

With excellent timing, I've just received the latest copy of Quest. The main article is Part 1 of a history of the Soviet orbital laser battle station project, which got to the point of attempting to orbit a 77 tonne systems test model in 1987. While it doesn't touch on particle beams, it does reveal that the whole Soviet "starwars" programme was authorised by a joint decree of the party and government in 1976, so it certainly pre-dates Reagan's programme.

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"The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head" Terry Pratchett

That was Energiya's First launch--Polyus. I think it will have been 20 years this May. Sary Shagan almost blinded Challenger's crew with Terra, and there was this talk about the "Elipton."

I have seen this said before, but no evidence given. Do you have any?

Jon

As far as the Ellipton, I remember an article, and an MTV broadcast from years back. It makes circles in the UFO community but its origin is outside of it. It sounds like one of those EMP flash-bangs--if it exists at all...

http://www.ufocom.org/UfocomS/usSysarme_2.htm

'For instance, have you heard about “elipton”? This is what can be read on Don Roper’s site (professor at the University of Colorado):'

“Romanian sources have alleged that the "Elipton" weapon referred to by Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky is a weapon system based on gravitational interference. The source hinted at a link between the use of this type of weapon and the cause of the Armenian earthquake. The "Hammer", as the weapon is also known, can allegedly trigger earthquakes through varying the gravitational acceleration in areas where there is accumulated tension in the ground”.

'And here is a relevant statement from Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who declared in 1994:'

“This weapon is stronger than nuclear weapons because its consequences are different, and there is no antidote. This is where its strength lies. There is no way of defending against it. It is the same with the sonic weapon. We also have this. What happens is that the cartridge detonates, and the sound is such that it brings down an entire military division. That is it; they are dead. . . . The elipton has the same effect. There is no radiation, no fire. There are no wounds. And entire military division simply dies. It is similar to the neutron weapon, but the latter has radiation. It has a damaging effect. The neutrons enter the human body; those cause the destruction. With the former, there is no damage, but all of life is immediately destroyed . Asked if the Americans or others had the weapon: No... No one. Russian scientists developed it exclusively”.

'Truth, hoax, sci-fi, misinformation? Perhaps...'

More probable...
http://www.astronautix.com/articles/thistems.htm
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/terra3.htm

He Who Controls Gravity Controls The Universe Herself
Elipton,Elipton, Elipton...that's some powerful incantation....
(and all on MTV you say)

And Zhirinovsky is, of course, a reliable source.

Jon

This weapon is stronger than nuclear weapons because its consequences are different, and there is no antidote.

I was just wondering what the antidote to being on the receiving end of a nuclear weapon was...

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"Slapping a guy on the head is just as funny now as it was eighty years ago."

Duck and Cover of course!

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'The eye can only see what the mind is prepared to accept'

Cover and Duck!

AtomBombCoverDuck

A with this memo
B you will be
C double
D save

Isn't a flashlight technically a "particle beam generator"? If so, I have several. And they're for sale to the highest bidder

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"I have this theory that the Apollo missions were faked when NASA found out that general relativity was wrong because the Earth was expanding due to the Sun's iron core being influenced by magnetic waves from the electric universe after being perturbed by Planet X and thereby causing global warming. Where should I start a thread about this?" ~ ToSeek

"Those are the people that wonder how a thermos knows whether to keep something hot or keep something cold." ~ NeoWatcher

so you are in possesion of a forbidden weapon then.........