4 insane but real weapons the Space Corps will need

Fighting in space isn't as easy as just spraying bullets and hoping for the best. As a matter of fact, in the vacuum of space and an arena without friction, you're really just asking for the worst. Even in a training exercise, bullets would go on forever in the absence of anything to slow them down, hitting god-knows-what and killing god-knows-whom and the next thing you know: Interstellar War.

These weapons will help solve that issue.

It's a proven fact that bullets will fire from a weapon, even in a vacuum. Modern ammo contains its own oxidizer, a chemical that triggers the explosive needed to fire a bullet. But this doesn't mean you should shoot things in space with bullets.

Also read: This is what it would be like to be a Space Shuttle Door Gunner

Luckily, DARPA and other agencies don't wait for people to come up with things like the Space Corps. They let the Space Corps come to them. And there are already a lot of incredible toys out there.

As long as they don't get Daredevil-like powers, that's still an advantage.

(Northrop Grumman)

4. THEL

A joint U.S.-Israeli laser weapons project, the Tactical High Energy Laser is able to destroy incoming munitions as they fly through the air. The chemical laser, made up of deuterium fluoride, would be able to target satellites in space and is proven to be able to temporarily blind them.

Ask the Taliban how effective drone strikes can be.

(NASA)

3. Space drone strikes

The Air Force has sent the X-37B into orbit a handful of times, but no one is really sure what it's doing up there. The X-37B is a reusable version of the American Space Shuttle, but the only thing the Pentagon will say about it is that it once tested an advanced propulsion system. But it would still need a space-based weapons system, which brings us to...

Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew.

(DARPA)

2. Excalibur Lasers

DARPA's got you covered. This is the kind of thing the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency was created to do. Excalibur coherently combines lower-power, electrically-driven lasers for the maximum-possible efficiency. The only remaining part of the plan is to boost the power of the system without affecting the quality of its output.

More like Death for Above.

(DARPA)

1. MAHEM

DARPA's Magneto Hydrodynamic Explosive Munition has been in development since 2008. The warhead can be placed on something as large as an ICBM or as small as an RPG and shoots an "explosively-formed jet" of chemically molten metal into (and probably right through) any reinforced or armored structure.