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What would the effective ranger of a laser in nearly gas-free environment like space be? How precise of laser collimators are we able to build?
by voxadam 8y ago
What would the effective ranger of a laser in nearly gas-free environment like space be? How precise of laser collimators are we able to build?
- azernik 8y agoIn general, at the power levels in question the limiting factor is diffraction, not beam quality. There are a lot of variables going into it, but the numbers I've seen bandied about for orbital systems are on the order of 100km. See e.g. here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1000936114001010 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S100093611... (Or, for a more speculative take, here: https://childrenofadeadearth.wordpress.com/2016/07/02/the-photon-lance/ https://childrenofadeadearth.wordpress.com/2016/07/02/the-ph...)