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Laser Launch into Orbit

(toughsf.blogspot.com)
60 points EA-3167 | 5 comments | | HN request time: 0.837s | source
1. lupusreal ◴[] No.43690983[source]
> Fibre lasers, where hundreds of tiny beams are joined through optical fibres into a larger beam

I'm no laser expert, but this doesn't seem right to me.

replies(3): >>43691315 #>>43691353 #>>43691747 #
2. red75prime ◴[] No.43691315[source]
It is possible to create the desired wavefront using many emitters. A phased array is doing exactly that. But, yeah, tolerances for a phased array of IR lasers are much tighter. I'm not sure if it's technologically possible right now.
3. anentropic ◴[] No.43691353[source]
me neither, but...

https://www.exail.com/photonics/spectral-beam-combining

https://www.rp-photonics.com/beam_combining.html

https://agiltron.com/category/fiber-optical-splitter-coupler...

replies(1): >>43692545 #
4. pfdietz ◴[] No.43691747[source]
IEEE Spectrum had their usual interesting in-depth look at this a few years ago, for military fiber lasers.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/fiber-lasers-mean-ray-guns-are-com...

The technique appears to involve multiple lasers of slightly different wavelength; this allows the beams to be combined and to not interfere with each other.

5. lupusreal ◴[] No.43692545[source]
It can be done, but I don't think that's the core principle of operation of fiber lasers (which I understand to be using the fiber itself as the lasing medium, which is a powerful technique because it can be coiled up and made very long.) Maybe I misread that sentence and that isn't what's being claimed.