ILLUMINA-T the new high-power laser-communication system can improve and make satellite communication more powerful.
ILLUMINA-T the new high-power laser-communication system can improve and make satellite communication more powerful.
ILLUMINA-T laser system uses ground-based lasers-communication tools, aimed at targets by using orbital mirrors. Laser communication systems are not so easy to jam as radio waves. Laser rays can be used as a very high-secure communication tool. In some visions, the hollow laser ray covers information carrier laser rays. Because information carriers are traveling in the hollow laser ray, stealing information is very difficult.
If somebody tries to push some sensor through the outer laser ray the system sees changes in the power of that protecting laser ray.
That means they see if somebody tries to steal information by eavesdropping messages. And that makes laser communication secure.
In some versions, laser ray protects the radio maser beam in that channel. That allows the system to communicate through the wall.
The limits of the regular laser rays are that they cannot travel through walls without making holes into the walls. This is why there is lots of research about X- and gamma-ray lasers. Those lasers can transport information through walls without harming it.
"NASA’s ILLUMA-T payload communicating with LCRD over laser signals. Credit: NASA/Dave Ryan" (ScitechDaily.com/NASA’s ILLUMA-T: Pioneering the Next Era of Laser Space Communications)
"NASA’s Laser Communications Roadmap. Credit: NASA / Dave Ryan" (ScitechDaily.com/(ScitechDaily.com/NASA’s ILLUMA-T: Pioneering the Next Era of Laser Space Communications)
But similar technology that is used in ILLUMINA-T can be used in laser weapons. The difference between laser communication and laser weapons is the energy ray's power. In some space-weapon models, ground-based high-power megawatt-scale laser systems send their laser rays to the mirrors at the orbiter.
The power of those laser rays would be high enough that they destroy satellites. In those weaponized models, the laser system is static, and the mirrors at the exhaust tube in front of the mouth of the laser aim the laser rays into mirror satellites.
If those lasers are positioned in an X-shape formation those mirrors can cover 360-degree areas. The same lasers can be used as the message lasers, and if the system must use them as weapons they must just adjust their power to a destructive level. The most powerful lasers can produce over 2000 terawatt power.
That power will break those laser mirrors immediately. But it is possible. These kinds of ultra-powerful lasers can be dangerous also for ground targets.
Even if orbital mirrors are single used in that power level they still have time to aim laser ray into the target. If a 2000 terawatt laser system shoots its beam through the orbiter, it could destroy at least high-flying aircraft. The laser weapon can also as a scientific tool, and only if that weapon is needed the operators can put the mirrors in the right points and those laser rays can conduct out from the laboratory by using channels that are made for that purpose.
https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-illuma-t-pioneering-the-next-era-of-laser-space-communications/?expand_article=1
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