Re: Laser communications idea

James Rogers (jamesr@best.com)
Mon, 11 May 1998 10:48:24 -0700


At 11:24 PM 5/10/98 PDT, Darin Sunley wrote:
>On a purely non-technical note, you might want to be careful which
>satellite you're doing the bouncing off of. Shooting a medium powered
>laser at someone else's satellite could be interpreted as an unfriendly
>act, Especially if the satellite has sensors that could be
>dazzled/destroyed by such a beam. I have a feeling that a laser beam
>whose scattered reflection is powerful enough to be detected from earth
>is more then bright enough to create a big dead spot in the center of a
>CCD on any earth observation satellite.

I was under the impression that earth observation satellites are not
generally found in geosync because the long distance degrades the
resolution of their sensors. If I am not mistaken, most observation
satellites are in LEO or MEO.

-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com