Here's a paper from NASA's (budget-axed) Mars Laser Communications Demonstration. They estimate 10-100 Mbps bandwidth, on a 5 W laser system (300 W pulsed, but

Here's a paper from NASA's (budget-axed) Mars Laser Communications Demonstration. They estimate 10-100 Mbps bandwidth, on a 5 W laser system (300 W pulsed, but only drawing 5 W from the PSU). http://trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov/dspace/bitstream/2014/38254/1/04-0101.pdf http://trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov/dspace/bitstream/2014/38254/1/04... and also http://trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov/dspace/bitstream/2014/38024/1/04-0216.pdf http://trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov/dspace/bitstream/2014/38024/1/04... context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Telecommunications_Orbiter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Telecommunications_Orbite... There's a much more interesting paper somewhere that designs a system for interstellar lasers.. edit: I can't find what I'm thinking of, but this optical SETI experiment is relevant. It looked at 577 nearby stars (<50 parsecs = 163 light years), and claims it could detect a 50 kW (!!) optical laser pointed from one of them (presumably at a negligible bitrate). http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0112479 http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0112479