US Gov want to buy Lightning on tap

[MechanicalMouse]

I believe this little project should be up our street.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/21/darpa_lightning_on_tap/

I assume they wish to trigger lightning from an already charged environment, rather than summon a storm.

Off the top of my head, Ionise the air in the area to create a more conductive path for the lightning.

An Air Ioniser strapped to a rocket, of course it would have to be designed to work at a high air flow, but the theory is sound.

[jringling]

Afew years ago I watched some sort of show about different researchers triggering lightening strikes for various projects. The only one I remember involved small bottle rockets with a long length of wet srting to "target" the strike where they wanted it. I have always wanted to try it, but I don't have the safety gear and insulated bunker to work out of...

[Nikola Tesla]

But then, DARPA claimed that packet-switched networking was all about military communications or something of that sort: whereas in fact it turned out to be predominantly a vehicle for global distribution of pornography.

Heh.  So, this might involve lightning, the Internet, and porn?

*pinches self*

No, it's all about protecting property from lightning damage

Oh, it's just NAR again.  I thought those schlumps were out of money.

OK, that settled, what are they really going to use it for...

...and how much are they paying?

[MechanicalMouse]

I gave it extra thought last night.

Ionisation alone would not be sufficient since the air would already be heavily Ionised, also would not cover the desired 1KM square.

The wet wire rocket would give a single point, where as DARPA are after a "cone" to direct lightning to a single  point.

[19th Century Space Pilot]

Hmmm. Perhaps a net of fine wires?

[19th Century Space Pilot]

Actually... ionising the ground with the opposite charge might have the desired effect, as it would increase the charge difference between the ground and the air, making a lightening strike more probable.

[Lucius Voltaic]

How about creating a monster from dead bodies? That pretty much guarantees a lightning storm. 

[Khem Caigan]

This has come up in previous discussions
on directed energy weapons/ray guns.

Here are a couple of related posts :

Laser Lightning Rod System
US Patent 4017767
http://tinyurl.com/nljuu8

Aerial Conductor for Wireless
Signaling and Other Purposes
US Patent 1309031
http://tinyurl.com/mrlx2r

[Maj. Clive Hathaway]

How about creating a monster from dead bodies? That pretty much guarantees a lightning storm

Trust me on this one... building a "monster" out of "spare parts" does NOT automatically conjure an electrical storm. And you would not BELIEVE how much the neighbors complained...