On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 12:04 PM,  <xxxxxx@shadowgard.com> wrote:
> On 9 Dec 2014 at 9:31, Jeffrey Schwartz wrote:
>
>> I'm kinda wondering if using the _ship's_ lasers for this would be the
>> easy solution to the problem.
>>
>> Stand off by 10km, and bathe the ice-ball in 150Mj of laser mojo until
>> it is vapor.
>> Then move in and skim the vapor.
>
> Weapons grade lasers don't melt. They dump so much energy into a
> spot, so fast, that the material *explodes* into plasma.
>
> Even if you dialed them way down, the vapor would disperse into the
> vacuum far too fast for you to skim it.
>
> And at high enough energies to get the "blast" effect, many if not
> most of the chunks will be departing at high speed.
>

That makes sense...
..but...

I can see the pulse hitting the big ball of ice, and there being a
Bang! as it heats a small area to plasma, which then explodes and
makes a crater.
But wouldn't the crater walls be pretty hot?
And they'd steam off?