A conceptual 3D view of the ARGUS-PD/POD-7K research architecture as an integrated orbital demonstrator: the seven-kilometre driver — 1,000 × 7 m cells at 150 MJ each — energised as a travelling wave, its solar generation and pulse-energy buffer, converters, radiators, magnetic vector control, and the modular projectile whose deposited mass budget the papers screen. Pick a family member, drag to orbit, click any subsystem to label it, and run the launch to watch the cell wave sweep the projectile down the bore and coast to a demonstration target. Every subsystem traces to Paper II, the projectile budget to Paper I, and the attitude loop to the geomagnetic companion paper.
Illustrative & conceptual — not to scale, not a buildable design. A hypothetical planetary-defence research demonstrator in orbit (the series declares no operational altitude; geometry and placement are schematic). Only the projectile mass allocations (deposited budget, total 0.300 kg reference) and the 1,000-cell / 32-face / 0.505 m-collar figures are quantitative. No operational targeting, fire-control, pulsed-power, coil, capacitor or rail engineering is shown or implied — the on-screen auto-aim and lead-corrected shots are game-style illustration of the papers’ pointing hierarchy, not a firing solution.
The engagement scenario is this visualiser’s invention, not a finding of the papers. An inbound body on an Earth-crossing track, a multi-shot campaign, cumulative deflection and a closing sequence of intercepts are all staged here to make the geometry legible. The papers claim none of them: Paper I §8 places “all Earth-intersecting states outside the intended research envelope” and states that delivered kinetic energy is calculable while useful deflection is not; Paper III §7.2 makes no E3 or E4 claim; and no salvo, warning window or intercept range appears anywhere in the series. 0.5 AU is a screening quotient — the normalising range R/v used to compare family members (Paper I §6.2) — not a stated intercept distance; it is drawn here as a marked gate for exactly that reason. Ranges are log-compressed (Moon 384,400 km → Mars ~54.6e6 km → target 0.5–1.5 AU) so all of it fits one frame; body diameters are true relative to each other.
◉ TARGET CAM
orbital demonstrator · illustrativedrag · scroll · click a part
0 km/sready◐ auto-aim ON · slewing bore onto asteroid
⚑ Forces
accelerating Lorentz force (down the bore) drive-cell field forces vector-control steering force (exit trim) geomagnetic field B (Earth's field · external/inertial) commanded dipole m (magnetorquer loop axis) slew torque τ = m × B (under-actuated: ⟂ B · slow) asteroid's Earth-bound track deflected track — misses Earth vector-control authority: ±1.5° exit-steering conereachable radius ≈ range·tan1.5°Cone × range sets the reachable impact footprint (illustrative control-authority envelope — not fire-control).
Earth 12,742 km — ≈1,820× the structure (off scale ↑)
Driver 7,000 m (reference)
ISS ~110 m
target ~100 m
projectile 0.5 m
Deflection — planetary defence (illustrative)
≈ — flight windows in a notional 1-yr warning
each imparts Δv ≈ —
Repeated small nudges walk it off an Earth-bound track — not one Hollywood hit. Illustrative — not operational.
Subsystems
Click to inspect · grounded in Paper II
Projectile (iso-energy family)
Target body
Select a subsystem to see its role and provenance.
Provenance: driver = 1,000 × 7 m cells, 150 MJ/cell (Paper II §2.3); projectile = 32-gon core (vertex Ø 0.050 m, 0.150 kg diamond-equivalent) with a 0.200 m² coupling collar (0.505 m equivalent Ø, 0.090 kg, 0.45 kg/m², ~21.4 MN) — a ~10:1 collar:core diameter ratio (Paper I §2). Deposited budget total 0.300 kg. Subsystems from Paper II's integrated architecture (solar generation & long-duration buffer; fast-pulse store discharging 428.571 GJ admitted energy through the ~14 ms launch, of which ~150 GJ becomes projectile kinetic energy at the assumed 35% efficiency; converters; radiators). Family: iso-energy 150 GJ set (reference_family.csv); members are illustrative material tiers — the 0.150 kg diamond-equivalent core is the Paper I reference (diamond's density caps its mass at this geometry), heavier members are dense-metal (tungsten-class) penetrators of broadly similar size, since the papers fix mass and velocity but not material. Impact per Paper I §8 — delivered energy is calculable; useful deflection is not. Earth imagery: NASA Earth Observatory (public domain); Mars & Sun textures courtesy PlanetPixelEmporium (James Hastings-Trew); asteroid + surface-view regolith map from three.js examples (NASA/USGS); smoke/vapour particle sprites from OpenGameArt.org (CC0/public domain); station surface textures (photovoltaic cells, metal plates, brushed metal) and the cracked-ground texture used by the stage-2 destruction from ambientCG.com (CC0). The ⛰ surface view is an illustrative phenomenological staging of hypervelocity impact regimes (surface energy coupling vs deep momentum coupling) — not a hydrocode result. Schematic and not to scale.