I have a confession to make: the main reason I linked to this article is because the title kicks too much ass. Sure, it ended up being an extremely interesting read, but I was sold on it just by reading the title.
Throughout the Second World War, the town of Hillersleben, Germany was home to one of the Third Reich's most crucial weapons research centers. At a sprawling facility nestled in the forested hills, a contingent of 150 engineers and physicists developed and evaluated all manner of experimental weapons, a substantial number of which were ultimately adopted by the Nazi war machine.
When Germany surrendered in May 1945, the scientists at Hillersleben were forced to abandon an assortment of death-bringing innovations at various stages of completion. Among these were a rocket-assisted artillery shell which had 50% more range than standard artillery, a 600mm mortar which fired one-ton self-propelled projectiles for up to three and a half miles, a modified Tiger tank which could fire a 760-pound rockets up to six miles, and a chain-like projectile made up of small, linked rockets with a range of 100 miles. But the military masterminds' most sinister ambitions were embodied in their behemoth Sonnengewehr, or "Sun Gun" project– an orbital weapon intended to exact fiery punishment upon the enemies of the Third Reich, forever establishing their dominance over the genetically inferior Untermenschen of the Earth.
[From Damn Interesting » The Third Reich's Diabolical Orbiting Superweapon]
The other cool thing about the article is a tiny bit of information that has eluded me for ages. Over the years I kept hearing about using space mirrors to generate electricity on the ground. For some reason I was too stupid to figure out that all it means is to concentrate sun light on a collector used to generate steam. D'oh.
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