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The point of the laser isn't to vaporise an entire asteroid. It's to push it off course enough to make it miss the Earth. The laser achieves that by pointing at
by lucubratory 3y ago
The point of the laser isn't to vaporise an entire asteroid. It's to push it off course enough to make it miss the Earth. The laser achieves that by pointing at a spot and turning that spot into an impromptu rocket engine.
- nradov 3y agoAn orbital laser won't have the range for that. The dispersion would be too high for any lens that we can practically launch into orbit. More realistic proposals for planetary defense call for focusing on long range detection and then using a gravity tractor or a rocket motor landed on the asteroid to slowly nudge it off course.
- lucubratory 3y agoI just don't think that's true. We launched Hubble and JWST, as well as many spy satellites with similar mirror size. If we're talking about lasers that could feasibly intercept ICBMs or hypersonics, that amount of laser power and a large lens should be able to exert significant pressure at range.