What does a sandcaster look like?

[BetterThanLife]

I think the most likely way for it to even have a chance to work would be as chaff, but I can't figure a good way to game it.

 

[chshrkt]

Has anyone seen any illustrations of sandcasters? <snip>

cheers

Ravs

Sandcaster cousin?

 

[Duke]

Am I missing something?

Uh, noise, in space or dirtside does not affect light which is what a laser is.
The sand would have to be powdered form and it would take more than one cannister to be truly effective, but the sands purpose is to disrupt the "cohesive" nature of the light of the laser, dispersing it (like the light from headlights in a fog.)
Without an atmosphere (wind and such) the sand will only have the deviations to direction caused by one particle bumping in to another to cause it to disperse, lasting long enough for several rounds of battle.
Just my own uneducated reasoning. If it sounds too stupid, please educate me.

 

[BetterThanLife]

Uh, noise, in space or dirtside does not affect light which is what a laser is.
The sand would have to be powdered form and it would take more than one cannister to be truly effective, but the sands purpose is to disrupt the "cohesive" nature of the light of the laser, dispersing it (like the light from headlights in a fog.)
Without an atmosphere (wind and such) the sand will only have the deviations to direction caused by one particle bumping in to another to cause it to disperse, lasting long enough for several rounds of battle.
Just my own uneducated reasoning. If it sounds too stupid, please educate me.

Sand is ablative. Which means it burns up when it is hit. Sand which disperses at the rate required to give a ship coverage within a combat round is going to keep dispersing at the same rate. (Objects in motion tend to stay in motion.) Sandcasters are described as Point defense weapons against specific laser hits, yet for point defense weapons to work they have to detect a laser before it hits. (Using Speed of light weapons.)

Those are the issues with Sand. To solve them it has to be magic precognitive sand. Or it has to mess up the target system. (Which wouldn't apply to just Lasers, Missiles and Energy Weapons.)