Is a Laser Data Link 1.5 Million Kilometers Feasible?

An anonymous reader writes "On the Canary Islands last week, a team from Oerlikon Space demonstrated the feasibility of a laser link across a distance of 1.5 million kilometers for the first time ever. In the future, laser links like this one will be able to transmit data across huge distances through the universe far more rapidly and efficiently than is possible using conventional radio links today."

Comments

Interesting to use this with radio telescopes

[DamonHD]

Hi,

It seems to me that this would be especially useful to reduce the amount of induced radio noise when communicating with L1 (etc) radio telescopes or other instruments potentially sensitive to the normal radio frequencies used for communication, eg keep the comms out-of-band of what is being measured as far as possible.

Rgds

Damon

Re:Question about lasers

[Anonymous Coward]

It doesn't sound like you know much about mathematics. Please check the relation between the diameter of the laser spot and the power/area ratio, then rethink what the inverse square law actually says.