MN ess age POPOL WL Eran) Teac i Sa BS a aaa Pavey DESIGN NOTES ee enti emer) A avn‘CREATIVE DIRECTOR ladmnond A. Simonsen MANAGING EDITORS. Michae! E. Moore Fotert J Ryer Manacina ART oIRECION Manfred F. Mikuhn CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Jot. Bearman, JohnH. Bute srg) a0 eel Chratopne” Joh, Greg Casttyan Ee G Nice Korn, Gory klum David Janne Aiton, Ene Smt. Sean Share nse Wages EDITORIAL STARR. veh Civetan. eh Brien, card Fad Dace Boon Rene a ‘Hon AND SUOBOMPTION TULFLMENT. Pa! Cando! Img Richae! Georoe, "Sandia Hudson, ‘Sten on Ore MMOLESALE BULAN: There Can {ing Bicard Hon, Log Keen, Ane Lorbardo. ARANCE. Eestnce Ui mgr ighamea toramee“Oonagh Nae Serta Chisine, Fewne oan wanenouse. Sorc Sait ng) Emvice tony Teryson ug, yn SUES LR nips urns. ort a goa na i bs FOREIGN SALES. GREAT BRAM 6 EUROPE ree Mordat: Vera St Ausvata Te 10 S18 79) CANADIAN ‘Dor acne Oriana Wt Sch, Cain, eo ES APRAESE ‘ote sh cance Pont Hen C130, Yap She Kaka, heh seeemrene Looking Ahead to Next Time Ares 11. 10 will feature Return of the Stainless Stee! Rat, in which the immortal ‘im diGrie takes on a rabid computer and murderous programmer. Also featured will be a story by Harry Harrison to ac- ‘company the Game, Science for Science Fiction, Facts for Fantasy, reviews, and ‘much more, When to Expect Nr. 10 Domestic Subscribers: you have not received your copy of Ares. 1 by 9 Oc- tober 1964, notify our Customer Service Department. Please include your Custo- ‘mer Code and issue of expiration, both of Which should be found on this issu ‘mailing label, just above your name. Foreign Subscribers: Add eight weeks to the above date to alow for the lymphatic pace of international mail On the Cover John W. Pierard's representation of 3 Dagger class ship from DetaVee, the Universe tactical space combat system, and a scene {rom Dragonslayer, a Para ‘mount Pictures-Wel Disney production. te’ Prahar eter Sunde ‘Same Cansancn nang Fee Ofer, ures ony eng as certs n ARES tea oat on rca "gmat ot “FILM & TELEVISION MEDIA BOOKS GAMES. “DESIGNER'S NOTES FEEDBACK Muse, | suppose that i's impossible for you not to notice that the rules to this issue’s game are printed as a separate booklet. The total ‘page count of the twin-booklet magazine is 152 (390% inerease over the normal pages! ‘Thisis due partly to the convenience of print ing sll the Universe/Deltalee rules at once. Is also to allow you to buy the Basic Set of Universe (which includes the role-playing ‘material but not the tactical combat system) and thereby have 3 complete Universe game with no duplicate components. ‘We may very well folow this procedure con all our Aras games in the future — i.e print the rules separately — which is not ex- actly innovative; i's the way Strategy & Tac- tics magazine was configuied over 10 years ‘ago. | Would think that this would be con- sidered a “plus” to mast of you but do let me knowif I've presumed too much, Tine wth your indicatod desires, we've begun to include more game msteriai in the issue Isee The Sword and the Stars article) (On that note — the “House of Kurin® cap: sule adventure in issue 7 got a bad overall GREG COSTIKVAN etal 2 DRAGONNOTES ENCLOSURES: Ovni nap coment; Feaackcand manta THE MAGAZINE OF BERNCE Aeron ADVENTURE GAMING DeltaVee JONNH gUTTERFIELO REDMOND SIMONSEN inser Dragonslayer Interview with Produce: Hal Barwood MICHAELE MOORE ‘ mgr The Sword JUSTIN LEITES and the Stars ERIC SMITH 8 ing Non Sana Lasers in Space JOHN BOARDMAN, Ph © The Embracing bavioy. scHow ” cans re ited MUSE REDMOND A SIMONSEN 2 FACTS FOR FANTASY SUSAN SHWARTZ, PhO 3 ‘SCIENCE FOR in ean SCIENCE FICTION JOHN BOARDMAN, Ph.D 2 (CHRISTOPHER JOHN 0 DAVID. SHOW 2 ERIC GOLDBERG @ STAFF 2 DAVID JAMES RITCHIE a” JOHN BUTTERFIELD 2 rating but did very well with those of you who" are avid role-players, .Predicable ‘enough. But where does the wide spit in ac Cceptance leave us vis-a-vis printing meteral ‘not wanted by one group and highly des ‘able toanother? Redmond SPI 2570 svonsnsoun New York, N.Y. 10010, (21673-4103, SSPI i 2 member of the Hobby Industry of America, The Adventure Games Dison of the HIA, and the Game Manufacturers ‘RasociationSPlis proud to announce A Fantastic Game of Quest and Adventure based upon the exciting new motion picture from Paramount Pictures Corp./Walt Disney Productions A young sorcerer sets out upon a perilous journey to free a kingdom from the terror of earth's lat dragon. Along his route he acquires weapons, charms, and true companions toad him in his quest. Willhe succeed or fll vitim to ban dit, the King's men, or the dragon itself? Dragonslayer is designed 10 appeal to knowledgeable fantasy adventure ‘game players while at the same time remaining accessible 10 ‘new gamers, This fast playing, self-contained adventure in 200 full-color mn lair displays, res and game ‘cludes a full color 17°%22° map of U playing pieces, easy-aceess rules, and Drs plus compartment plastic tray. SIS at Separtments nationwide.iy INTERVIEW by Michael E. Moore Itis forty feet long and has e wingspread (of 90 feet. It snarls and spits 30-foot long ‘lames from its mouth, Itis called Vermithrax Pejorative, and its @ dragon, @ primal force ‘of nature. itis the creature the young ap- prentice Galen must attempt to destroy. Its also the brainchild of Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins, who wrote the script ‘and acted, respectively, as producer and director of Dragonsiaysr, — 2 new Para: ‘mount Productions Corporation and Walt Disney Productions fantasy motion picture. ‘Though the picture features Sir Ralph Richardson asthe master sorcerer Ulich, Peter MacNicol as the young Galen, and Caitlin Clarke as the courageous Valerian, the ‘vue star of Dragonsiayeris the terrible beast, Vermithrax. British-born Brian Johnson headed up the mechanical effects during the principal photography in England and Wales, fand George Lucas” Industrial Light and Magic, Inc: (ILM) had an 80-man team work ‘on the special photographic effects for the film. The teamwork of Johnson and ILM under the supervision of Dennis Muren! helped create a true monster well worthy of testing young Galen's mettle, “There is something irresistible in the idea of a young magician who has not gone ‘through his rite of passage and who can’t really doit," Hal Barwood explained. "There {sa certain charm and relevance to the many ‘situations that seem to hang in the ir around sucha cheracter. “The story has its immediate inspiration in The Sorcerer's Apprentice. We searched ‘round quite a bitte come up with the grand {ask this foolish young man should under- take. In our research we came across the story of St. George and tho Dragon. Every- body's heard of it yet most people don't have the faintestidea what the story is about. “In the St. George story, the king finds himself in a terrible quandry. He loves his ‘beople and protects most of ther from the Operation is» partici Usalul method of {hoy atiompt 0 enlarge thew domains atthe fomshosein Empires. generating Resource Points (Gold) Al eee cae ‘Themajorchangeig te game systems Though many playesters and Empires eI MOREE. ogy siguia. theinvoducton ot th SurGuteinmores players own on te 8 unponorany sone re Game mwchanies of bow sire: gpiyer allowed toariack only tron rass ys StarGate il help e ayer move on ov Sprigeamar Aplaeretarawsantvent Sige ore ecacan 2 pert of ha emple, vere orotate rigor sich Bytes ot Sa Hols tr ees ee PNET ein Sword StorGete oliows aplverto LADAU or Fortin rect ot neutl but rasan cane denenen stack any system onthe gome man. Fests proftabl Sines each tyson has a Ree arout empires ord'moy hap an opsosng PAVE Must have ost sytor wih a Tech Source Vive es wel a3 8 Tech Lew, the Harous amore, sod may halo an apposng oul of wo ores hres isthe maximum most prota Voiding systems ae not Bes 5 ne, aye wo dew M2 nye gama velo he cn wile he Star necessary the most ation anes to 9, Star Cords, which in Sword feprsere tre Gale. Once tin ploy. player's to use The Resource Valve's ten added to adoro serrate case Reset etalk fa, govern at convert any athe’ andthe reat a fund on arabe eleing sagas of arr earch By ein9 system he doses range hes noetec Use OtaSfasauea Poms ganed ee Foe are eee: ota StarGatoineeasesthacest of an Opere- Another tactic whieh most novice Take ene Operation Tenseavons, thace i> ON, but the eblity fofstany system ame: players wil not use isthe Communications ‘ude: Conquest, capturing a system hat is J0"chengein play. Operation. There are two possible results Shier octane or Solonse to arotner One advantage ol the tarGateisthatit trom such an operation First, a Trade Con ier independent oF eaionds fo another eliminates the nevtbity of war InEmpre, nection mey be Toned which may then be Fe a oan eee te tho only way to expand ane'sempte Usually Used to develop 9 Treaty: a player roetves Ree nears rue fomeing i yee Level involved atacking.enadiacont players oress extra Victory Ponts atte end ofthe geme {Sect State: Communcate IDeiomecr|. rd thustouching off wa as acansequenes, for developing Treaties withthe syst he Scanacteeewitroltesireeerse Comes SWOW, a player can uso a StarGate to gwns. Second, 2 bloodless diplomatic con. Fane a ae eevee” conguerareutralsystem on the other side? quest of & system may occu hich nether Peale raring, ¢ payers syatem PY thomap. Without he SarGates there would puts tin revolt nar reduces its Tach Level Fe eng te Teer evel I bea greater tendency towards war snce the Communizatons is wey cost elective in Dior Congonst Operon? Cosaenwes Sword mapissmalle than he moves map. both time and money or @ payer witha hgh [Fertiteaton, improving the defences of, A”0t0e" advantage to having a system Diplomatic Sector ating. tystem: and in Sword only, StarGate, ‘with 8 high Tech Level is that it allows 3 ‘One feature of Sword that many players: Srstgms and Jn Sirord only StarGate. Flavor wobringhs other systems up to @high wil probably not use to uletiact unt hey sory ease ‘ech Level quickly, Unike Erprecwhere the are mace thoroughly exparienend with the ‘ech oleyr ry ply some oral of his YatOUS areas inakingdom can be nohigher game the Confederation of Wet, The Yea ay ay re oO ts than two levels above Soci State norm, in ffteen systems In the oontor of the map ee eee a aus Some 12452 Sword there tena mt. A player wha ls do- belong 9 a Holy Roman Emp of sort A apsing ther ayer a Tre ucts: ng well m Sword wil have many systems at sosion of the Confederation scaled when Sector Levels [Leases Siatareal ofthe Tech Level treo, As 9 consequence, Guar. one payer wishes to mit the sucrass of Sector Levels Leader Ststuies) of he gianWets (Foriicalons] are easior to Bul snother players Operation or when cet governnant the alaver's empire. Ths? Sd thus rebalkons are prevented or made wiggering functors occur. The Confoders Fee ee ert meena, fos ily in those eystems which ae taxed. ton’ may voto to expel 2 payer, n eect oth games. Arter number sfgsmectuns, Aealthy Vessury leo makes teaser to de- alienating him fom athe rst of the. Com Pepe] fend against Outworlders (Magnates, 2 federation systoms and systems owmnod by a group ol beings whe tke contolatasystem other pavers, ths incroasing hs ifeaty All the plovtesters for Sword were andbegintoatiack noghborngsystens.” gehewngsuccessin the game, ‘ready familar with the Empires game twat finely does arse, he control of @ "The politcal pul win the Confeders- System. Consequently in thelist fw games StarGate is wally impertant, foritallows 3 ion depends an’ the number of ster:within the organization a player controls wellas his Diplomatic Sector rating. The out. ‘come of a Confederation vote is determined by a simple majority of votes. Once a player 's expelled from the Confederation, he may ‘not take part in any further negotiations in the Confederation until reinstated, a highly infrequent event in our games. ‘Another unique aspect of the game is that players may vote to-end the game after a Ccertain number of game turns have passed. Most scenarios have two end times listed, fone is maximum limit and the other is the umber of game turns played until voting, begins. A player who is far ahead in the game can often vote an early end to play. This vote is open to all players, but Confederation members receive more votes for each Con- {ederation system they control. The Sword and the Stars offers players ‘an interesting strategic overview of the dif ficulties inherent in building and maintaining 2 galaxy-wide empire. Though it does have many similarities to Empires of the Middle ‘Ages, it definitely has its own subile dit ferences that give ita unique flavor. The Em- pres game system has proven well able to spawn an offspring with a distinctive science fiction character and interest. Justin Leives Designer's Notes Empires of the Middle Ages wes releas- ed in the spring of 1980. The reaction of the public and game critics was immediate and tenthusiastic. Unscheduled all night games of Empires sprang up at Origins 80 and other conventions held during the summer. In ‘August it was decided that a science fiction ‘game using the Empires system should be ‘designed and the project was turned over to me. My only directives were to reduce the number of card decks from two to one, ‘reduce the number of counters from 600 to 400, and reduce the map from full to half- size. These changes would reduce the cost (of the game considerabiy, thus allowing it to reach 3 larger market than the original Em- ‘pires game. Significantly, the number of ‘ules pages was not decreased; in fact, | was given free license to expand the rules if | ‘deemed it desirable. The final object of the ‘game would be to reduce the game's price ‘while increasing the game's value to the players. “The first thing | did was to play Empires and study its rules until | knew them back- wards and forwards. Then | called severat ‘groups of gamers, who played Empires alot, {0 ask their opinion of that game. | asked them what they liked best, and 2 clear con~ sensus was that they all liked the way the di- plomacy and player interaction worked. ‘They also liked the simple economics, ran- dom events and the quality of the map and physical components, The magnates and raiders were considered essential and should not have been optional in their opinion. On the negative side, everyone agreed that the scenarios were too long and that some kingdoms had grossly inadequate ‘chences 19 win (chalk one up to historical reaismi. Some players were also uneasy ‘with the more picayune historical imitations {and chrome. The overall opinion was that the ‘game was great; they played it often, they ever grew tired of it and they expected 10 Continue to pay itindefinitely. Some of them ‘expressed unease when | told ther that | ‘was working on a science fiction version of the game, they were afraid that | would ‘change the system for the worse, ‘With my mind thoroughly steepedin the ‘opinions of actual Empires players and after ‘my own appraisal, | sat down to design my ‘game. My first basic design decision was to Change very litle of the original design. 1 decided to modify the existing mechanics to fit an interstellar situation, but to keep real changes to a minimum. I wanted Empires players to be able to get into Sword with a ‘minimum of effort and yet have a different ‘experience, not just rehash of the original. | ‘changed the names of mechanics which are virtually identical in both games and ‘modified the Raider and Magnate rues. !also began to think about how | could create a ‘iplomatic entity by modifying the existing Church mechanics. | created the Confedera tion of Worlds and began to write rules. SAMPLE SYSTEM REGISTER My second basic decision was to change ‘drastically the way Empires played. | wanted ‘Sword to have new strategies and a different favor. At this point | sat down with John Butterfield, another SPI designer. John had designed Freedom in the Galaxy and was ‘currently working on Universe and Voyage of the Pandora; ne Is an encyciopedia for sci- ‘ence fiction literature and game design. We brainstormed over the design of the Sword map and came to the conciuson that it should be a modified hex grid to allow the possiblity of several types of movernent John also recommended using circular stel- iar readouts as he had done in Freedom, which | agreed was a good idea. | thought ‘out the different possible movement systems and decided to allow Operations [Endeavors] to be undertaken against adjacent star sys- tems and against others anywhere on the mao by use ol a StarGate to “jump” there. It ‘ater turned out that this one addition to the game system was all that was needed to altor play and strategy radically | then began to work on the scenarios. It ‘wes obvious that | had to reduce the fength ‘of the game and include atleast one endless campaign game. | also reduced the max- mum number of players from six to five since the Sword map would be half the size Of the Empires map. Once | had committed ‘myself to locating five separate empires in 9 discreet areas on a hali-sizs map, the sairal ‘quadrant layout almost designed ~tselt. | made it such that the number of players in @ ‘game determines which part of the map is ‘Used during play. ' designed one scenario, called the Five Empires Stalemate, and began testing the ‘game. As we tested, | began to rewrite the entire Empire rules booklet section by sec- ‘ion. I fed the new rules to my testers as | finished them. Immediately 1t became ob- vious that the Confederation rules | wrote in the beginning would have to be expanded. With the help of my testers we thrashed out a kind of forum mechanic, or Holy Roman Empire as they called it. We continued to work on this rules section all through development; indeed, the final additions toit ‘were made after the game had been turned into the art department. We were very happy with the rule for voting to end the game. | have used @ version of this idea in other ‘games | have designed and developed, such 28 Bulge, Pea Ridge and The Alamo. In ‘Sword, \ continued to explore another way 10 keap the players in uncertainty 2s to when the game would end. ‘During playtesting | created the mythos of the races and ideologies ofthe various star systems and created the other scenarios, with the help of Justin Leites. Towards the tend of testing we began to work very hardon the Galactic Cycle campaign scanario. The scenario was very wid and didn't resemble the other scenarios at all. | couldn't believe the strange empires which were being Created when the players had the freedom to {do what they pleased. Once the mechanics for this scenario were finished, | prepared the final draft of the rules and turned the game over to the art department. We continued to test the game unbl the last day before the game was sant off to the printer. ‘As a designer | am very happy with the way The Sword and the Stars has turned ‘ut. Ihope you enjoy playing the game. Eric Loe Smith Swordand the Stars Addenda Inadvertently, a rule about the Draka ‘was laft out of the rules, Also included is an ‘optional rule which will make the game more ‘exciting, [21.38] (Addition! When the Draka enter play, the Tech Level of Harvest is immediate- Iy raised to 3. Should the level ever fall below 3, iis increased by one at the beginning of feach Round until it again reaches 3. When the Draka leave play, the Tech Level of Harvest is immediatly reduce to a Level of [16.4] INTERCEPTING BY STARGATE (OPTIONAL RULE) ‘A Player may intercept any Enemy Raid or ‘Conquest Operation attempted anywhere on ‘the map so fong as the Intercepting Player ‘qwnsa StarGate which is located on his Seat System and the Seat’s Tech Level is 2 or 3 ‘and his Military Sector Level is 6 or 8. More than one Player may intercept the same Oper- ation {see 18.30. Important: A Playsr who Uses a StarGate to intercept may not expend more Resources in the Operation than the combined sum of his Military Secter Level {and the Tech Levelof nis Seat System. 1M10 SCIENCEFACT Lasers in Space by John Boardman, Ph.D. vor since the origin of science fiction magazines in 1828, 8 popular weapon for ‘SDacemen has been the "esinterator ry" Small, hand-held mode's substituted for Ito inthe sort of space epic WIch Wes ‘eal just 8 resriton Western romance, ‘mavod from the deserts of Arizona to ross (of Mars and substituting greanskns fr “red- Sein." Spacoships wore armed with larger \orsions of the same bless, ond bottes took place 3 spaceships vod to evade thir feneries rays and get thelr own aod pr mii is 1987 now The Star King: ay ‘mounted on the spaceship ofthe Galactic Empire proved capable of desvoying space Ita, netuing an enemy bate ost that oc- upiegtngt space “Fhe “dangrator ry,” or simply “ray. was badly overworked inthe sognce fiction Of that ef Eventualy fans began caling it “sometning you can't see that turns someting alco sean sorana vou ‘August 189%. an exled German rocket ox: port named Wil Ley proved tothe saistoc- fon of most of he current selance ton Fades that couldt be done anyway” In ‘ordor to pack a walop such asthe pulp fe Aion ateibuted tot, sucha ray would have to bo mage of coheront tght-boam raiation. Some way wouls hove to be found thet would take the erignalyrondom racstions from the rays sour usualy "charges" In Serted into the Bato ike shes such as are Tages inte 's fldpioce) anc make them aferent with one anather Ley wrote that this would be impossible, and that space Warfare would probably ia the form of Spaceships tring sold propcties at each ‘ther much ikecontemporary batloships Consdeting the technologies capabi tis of the te, Ley was quite eorect ut 8 1816 paper by’ Abort instr hed areody pointed the way towards making ave of Eonerent ight ozable weapon. Eitan Showed tat ls soi substance struck By § photon ofa artulr frequency, an aac tron nt can gue af anothar photon of the Same Trequency. thus refocong the Ine ‘dont baam of photons with anthe photon ‘of the some energy Theenergy of photon, fr unit of electromagnetic radiation SSopends aniyon ts requancy! To do ths thesia substance must be energited: some ‘ofthis energy wil peer 8s coherent em {edpnotons of te same Frequency asthe ‘dentphotons 1 was not uni the eaty 1950 thet Sought. For one thing, it would cause the “plication of weak redo Signals, since the fd would ba stmusted co amt he same Signl ino more intense form The theory behind those ideas. was worked out by CCharse Town nthe Unted State, and in Sependontty by N.G. Basov and A.M. Pro- rerovin the Sovat Union Townes and hie resasrch group put to- gether the ist practcal application this Princple t Columbia University i 1864. 1 Was called Microwave Amplification by ‘Stimulates Emission of Hadiation, oF masa The waves used had equency ot 23,870 Megahertz — approximately 100 tines ihe frequency of channel Son a elev San. The wavelongth was 125 contimeters ‘Ammonia molecules wera Used t2 intensity the radiation by stimulated emission. In O80, the prinaple was extnded to vile ght ‘the resutng device wes called 3 “ase for “Light amplicon by Stimulated érssion ot odation In order fr the laser efoct to occur, mast ofthe atomsin the amplifier must heve Sections nan exsted sat, Since the unex “ground,” state, is more usual, ‘sucha Stuation scaled an “inverted popu tion” AS they ae stimulated to give off ‘hoions of the same frequency 9 tha inc Sent photons, the sectons in these atoms. {alto ther ground stato. Energy must there: fore be suppied to keep up the inverted Population, and ths excited state must bo Stable enough to stay excted. For example, ‘ammonia was chosen for the fest maser Bocuse it has fairy stable excited state at (G.on0tekzcon volt above te ground stat, Tis energy eorespands tothe emitted fe: ‘quency of 23,870 Meganer ‘Since all the eryttod photons nave the same frequency and are emited by the sare races, the emerging beam i highiy cof. {nt and of one tequency oni, 0 “mono. hvomatie" This radation can be concen twated into an extremely narrow Bear, with fan nergy concentration which can be 9s high as 000,000 Magawetts per souBrecer- tieter. Since most othe energy input of @ Taser goes to keeping its electrons in an ox Sted Sat, thease device of ater lowe ftfetency — 256 at best. Howes, though {he output energy isonly few percent ofthe ingut energy i very eh concntateg “Thore seven tak now af exotic forms of lasers, such as @ Kay and a. gamma ay lase The shorter dlectromagnote radiation 'S, hemoreanargyitearres The vslolght [aber ig much mare powerful than the mesar 55" should Soom that Xray Or gamma fay lagers could carry more energy sil. Rex search, much of It clasiid for military Foasons, now going on in his particu re ofinauiy C Ey a Eo a Excitation State of gt isons stat of Won the Deexcitation enya Actes Pos, 18, Pc ae[An Xray lator would fst have to pump energy into the atoms of the heavier ol ‘mont, and then stimula the emseon of rays fom these atoms as the electrons in {heir lowest energy tevel fal back to Veit ‘ground states. The man problem ls Vat the rated elscvons in these heavy atoms ge ‘up thet excess energy so fast 2 pumped: Up Xray laser might tose most offs energy ‘rough spontaneous emision, botre the Stimulated emsson coulbe triggered “The evan more energetic. and far more hypothetical, gana ay ase’ would have have the “pumping” done in the intemal ‘orgy lovee of the atomic euceus. Untor {reat many technological developments ‘would have to occur before aworking model Could ever be produced The. fst Taser designed in 1960 by (Chal Townes and Arthur Shawiow, used a ruby crystal as tho aroiying dovico. A fuby fs @ crystal of aluminum oxo, with Small amounts of ebvomium which give the {ysis characteristic deep red color. The ‘rexgy levels within these eheomium stems ‘ave'a property that enables thar to store nergy unl tha incdont photons can cause Ito be released. White ight is supplied to “pump up the chvomium atoms untl they forman inverted population, Most ofthe fe- ‘quences in the wit light are capable of Buttng the ground-state elecvons of the Ghromium atoms into two high-energy bands. These bands ae broad enough {0 Store quia ® wide range of eoctons of ‘arous energies, most of which eventually ‘top to a nartow band 1.79 electron volts above the ground state. This energy cor- reeponds to ight of wavelength 8.4 nano. ete, wehbe omen eve sess Thelasor canbe aimed the ruby crystal 's formed into a cylinder whose ends are ‘rocsaly paral 0 each other. Ono ends ‘Covered th fully refective ior, andthe ‘ther with parti reflecive Miron A ‘Nahenergy discharge lamp in ahaa form winds around the cylinder, providing the ‘ergy thet pumps the comsum atom Up {o thet excited sates. As so0n as 098 Bee ton stops rom te fist excited state to the found ha, We ase acon ogee ‘Bhotens which ht tho mires. ae feflected back, and stimulate more emissions (ofthis same frequency of red ight. A frac: tion 'of ths tadation escapes through the patalyrflecing mor, forming a rarcow tam of coherent high-energy ved ight. The Fate of 1,000,000 Megawatts each a {armor of beam sounds appeaing tmorgy source since this i approx fen times the fota slctrical generating Bpacty of the United States, but the burst eri orenemionthofremionthot ‘Humans are not the fst to creat tit cffect for it has bean observed that Smulatod emission is going on in nature 36 ‘wot, Maser resiation as been detectog by ‘ado telescopes, coming tom hydrox! ‘molecules in iterstlrspace. The pumeing ‘mechani in ths case infrared radiation {fom nearby sas, wich excites heron " Flash lamp Partially reflecting mirror Ruby cylinder it © Ati Pr, a, Pr molecules into a neary stable excited sto. Wa photon of the right wavelength comes ‘along, a natural maser emission oxcuts, 29d ‘ther hydroxy molecules inthe some spare ‘loud of interstelar gas aso begin emitting hotonsof te same wavelength. Radio tl ‘Scopes detoct this emission ab microwaves, Tet aso known from molecules of water ‘siicon monoxide, and even mothy alcohol, 9 father sophstcgied molecule to expect 10 find in space. Some 300 natural hyeroxy masors are known In space. Mast of them ‘re inrepions which produce vitualy no wis ‘Bl ght but some ao nth outer ayers of ‘thebght, cool stars ofthe red giant aes, ‘One ofthe frst practical aplication of ‘the ruby lasor began in, 1008 A. detached retina inthe ve can be “welded” by 9 las 1 the choroid surface below thus restor- Ing normal vision, ‘Since then, lasors have also" boon appt to bran surgory. Laser beams ae 20 oght that they can cara grat ‘many communeations channals. A rar laced on the moon by American astronauts Ir 106, 1 capable of felting @ eset boom {tom earth, end fxctuatione a sm 9,15 Centimeters in the earth-maon catance can ‘ow be measured, Tha sar also has uses Inaborstones on earth, where they make Dossibie the measure of datances 10 prec! ions of 3 nanometers (3 bilionthe of & ‘eter, and thus make possbo the mere 2c Curate measurement of physical constants 9s gravtatonal Held can now be ‘measured 18 precision of one parti 100 ‘malo, “Te coherence of laser ght makes it possite to project theee-dimensional im Sges, Information of the tree-amonsiona Peston of an object can be recorded on Euitaio fim. A Taser beam i then Srected {rough this fim, ana the mages projected In apece, The frst realy public appication of “holography” took place In tha window of CCati,the famous jewelry fe, Ie 1972 Crowds of usually unflappable Now Yorkers stopped ‘wae on Fith Avenue to 8 8 woman's hand, emerging from darkness, Folding uo a diemond necklace, One passa by attacked the image with her uebrla, diciarng tobe" the deus work” it the devil is involved in laser technology, i far more ky 10 be con Sidering erty appestions, the rela tion ofthe “dsinteprator ray” of pulp-age SSence ition. A tight, coherent, high fnergy beam of photons would make a ex ‘alent weapon, The United States now Spenaing about $200,000,000 2 yoar in ‘developing such a weapon, according 10 {estimony presented ite lst year 1. the Senate Commerce and Transportaion Com mittee by 27 scientists. and. military Specalists, the Soviet Union 'S spending fom thes 10 vo tines 66 much. Reforing to Tasrs with pow less than 20,000 wats, the committee's report stated that “ow: ower lasor fesearansinco 1980 has con {nbuted more than another led to imorov- Ing mitary hardware.” Since the laser was only invented in TEE, its tary develo ‘mont was obviously being considered from {he verybesinning ‘Whether high-powered ritary lasors are feasible dopends on 3 numberof techn a questions. A recent MIT reporterpressed ‘Some skoptcism about the feast 9h ‘ower lor warfare among satltes. Four problems have tobe dealt wth: the design of {he lasers themselves, Incuding an adequate source for the pumping energy; te optics ‘eoded to guide the beams to te root aching devices neoded to follow moving {argats and te placing ofthe statin or Dit. One hundred tons of equipment would have to be ited Into otit Tor ech loser ‘2imed satelite, at an estimated cost of §121000,000,00 for each one. And the o- Cant experince ofthe US Armed Foreas n= Scares thet such a cost estimate is never 3 laser boom, from another satelite or fom