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May 10, 2006 by kyle
This article discusses a secret laser space weapon program housed at an Air Force
research facility in New Mexico. This is disturbing because it represents a
significant leap in the militarization of space. What·s more disturbing for Hawai·i is
the fact that an optical satellite tracking telescope that can also be used as a
weapon to shoot a ´directed energy weaponµ or laser at satellites. The Air Force
already has an optical tracking station on Haleakala on Maui which uses lasers for
its research. Several years ago, while the protests raged against the classified
navy research lab at the University of Hawai·i (UARC/ Project Kai ¶e·e), the UH
Institute for Astronomy and the Air Force were developing plans for the Pan
STARRS optical telescope to track ´near earth objectsµ in space. When
completed the project would be the largest digital camera in the world. Under
questioning by the public, Air Force officials denied that the telescope would be
used for tracking satellites. Further they disclosed that the Air Force did not
really want the project. Rather it was being driven by earmarks by Senator
Inouye. Given the strong interest of the military in developing laser weapons for
use in space, the PanSTARRS project deserves a closer investigation.
>><<
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/washington/03laser.html?ei=5088&en=d397
5f5fa334c2ec&ex=1304308800&pagewanted=all
 
  
 




Starfire Optical Range

An aerial view of Starfire, a government observatory in New Mexico where laser
work is being done.
ýy WILLIAM J. ýROAD
Published: May 3, 2006
The ýush administration is seeking to develop a powerful ground-based laser
weapon that would use beams of concentrated light to destroy enemy satellites in
orbit.
 




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The largely secret project, parts of which have been made public through Air
Force budget documents submitted to Congress in February, is part of a wide-
ranging effort to develop space weapons, both defensive and offensive. No treaty
or law forbids such work.
The laser research was described by federal officials who would speak only on the
condition of anonymity because of the topic·s political sensitivity. The White House
has recently sought to play down the issue of space arms, fearing it could become
an election-year liability.
Indeed, last week Republicans and Democrats on a House Armed Services
subcommittee moved unanimously to cut research money for the project in the
administration·s budget for the 2007 fiscal year. While Republicans on the panel
would not discuss their reasons for the action, Congressional aides said it
reflected a bipartisan consensus for moving cautiously on space weaponry, a
potentially controversial issue that has yet to be much debated.
The full committee is expected to take up the budget issue today.
The laser research is far more ambitious than a previous effort by the Clinton
administration nearly a decade ago to test an antisatellite laser. It would take
advantage of an optical technique that uses sensors, computers and flexible
mirrors to counteract the atmospheric turbulence that seems to make stars
twinkle.
The weapon would essentially reverse that process, shooting focused beams of
light upward with great clarity and force.
Though futuristic and technically challenging, the laser work is relatively
inexpensive by government standards ³ about $20 million in 2006, with planned
increases to some $30 million by 2011 ³ partly because no weapons are as yet
being built and partly because the work is being done at an existing base, an
unclassified government observatory called Starfire in the New Mexico desert.
In interviews, military officials defended the laser research as prudent, given the
potential need for space arms to defend American satellites against attack in the
years and decades ahead. ´The White House wants us to do space defense,µ said a
senior Pentagon official who oversees many space programs, including the laser
effort. ´We need that ability to protect our assetsµ in orbit.
ýut some Congressional Democrats and other experts fault the research as
potential fuel for an antisatellite arms race that could ultimately hurt this nation
more than others because the United States relies so heavily on military satellites,
which aid navigation, reconnaissance and attack warning.
In a statement, Representative Loretta Sanchez, a California Democrat on the
subcommittee who opposes the laser·s development, thanked her Republican
colleagues for agreeing to curb a program ´with the potential to weaponize space.µ
Theresa Hitchens, director of the Center for Defense Information, a private
group in Washington that tracks military programs, said the subcommittee·s action
last week was a significant break with the administration. ´It·s really the first time
you·ve seen the Republican-led Congress acknowledge that these issues require
public scrutiny,µ she said.
In a statement, the House panel, the Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic
Forces, made no reference to such policy disagreements but simply said that ´none
of the funds authorized for this program shall be used for the development of
laser space technologies with antisatellite purposes.µ
It is unclear whether the Republican-controlled Congress will sustain the
subcommittee·s proposed cut to the administration·s request, even if the full House
Armed Services Committee backs the reduction.
The Air Force has pursued the secret research for several years but discussed it
in new detail in its February budget request. The documents stated that for the
2007 fiscal year, starting in October, the research will seek to ´demonstrate fully
compensated laser propagation to low earth orbit satellites.µ
The documents listed several potential uses of the laser research, the first being
´antisatellite weapons.µ
The overall goal of the research, the documents said, is to assess unique
technologies for ´high-energy laser weapons,µ in what engineers call a proof of
concept. Previously, the laser work resided in a budget category that paid for a
wide variety of space efforts, the documents said. ýut for the new fiscal year, it
has moved under the heading ´Advanced Weapons Technology.µ
In interviews, Pentagon officials said the policy rationale for the arms research
dated from a 1996 presidential directive in the Clinton administration that allows
´countering, if necessary, space systems and services used for hostile purposes.µ
In 1997, the American military fired a ground-based laser in New Mexico at an
American spacecraft, calling it a test of satellite vulnerability. Federal experts
said recently that the laser had had no capability to do atmospheric compensation
and that the test had failed to do any damage.
Little else happened until January 2001, when a commission led by Donald H.
Rumsfeld, then the newly nominated defense secretary, warned that the American
military faced a potential ´Pearl Harborµ in space and called for a defensive arsenal
of space weapons.
The Starfire research is part of that effort.
Federal officials and private experts said the antisatellite work drew on a body of
unclassified advances that have made the Starfire researchers world-famous
among astronomers. Their most important unclassified work centers on using small
lasers to create artificial stars that act as beacons to guide the process of
atmospheric compensation.
When astronomers use the method, they aim a small laser at a point in the sky
close to a target star or galaxy, and the concentrated light excites molecules of
air (or, at higher altitudes, sodium atoms in the upper atmosphere) to glow brightly.
Distortions in the image of the artificial star as it returns to Earth are measured
continuously and used to deform the telescope·s flexible mirror and rapidly correct
for atmospheric turbulence. That sharpens images of both the artificial star and
the astronomical target.
Unclassified pictures of Starfire in action show a pencil-thin laser beam shooting
up from its hilltop observatory into the night sky.
The Starfire researchers are now investigating how to use guide stars and flexible
mirrors in conjunction with powerful lasers that could flash their beams into space
to knock out enemy satellites, according to federal officials and Air Force budget
documents.
´These are really smart folks who are optimistic about their technology,µ said the
senior Pentagon official. ´We want those kind of people on our team.µ
ýut potential weapon applications, he added, if one day approved, ´are out there
years and years and years into the future.µ
The research centers on Starfire·s largest telescope, which Air Force budget
documents call a ´weapon-class beam director.µ Its main mirror, 11.5 feet in
diameter, can gather in faint starlight or, working in the opposite direction, direct
powerful beams of laser light skyward.
Federal officials said Starfire·s antisatellite work had grown out of one of the
site·s other military responsibilities: observing foreign satellites and assessing
their potential threat to the United States. In 2000, the Air Force Research
Laboratory, which runs Starfire, said the observatory·s large telescope, by using
adaptive optics, could distinguish objects in orbit the size of a basketball at a
distance of 1,000 miles.
Another backdrop to the antisatellite work is Starfire·s use of telescopes,
adaptive optics and weak lasers to track and illuminate satellites. It is considered a
baby step toward developing a laser powerful enough to cripple spacecraft.
Col. Gregory Vansuch, who oversees Starfire research for the Air Force Research
Laboratory, said in an interview that the facility used weak lasers and the process
of atmospheric compensation to illuminate satellites ´all the time.µ Such tests,
Colonel Vansuch emphasized, are always done with the written permission of the
satellite·s owner.
He said that about once a month, Starfire conducted weeklong experiments that
illuminate satellites up to 20 times.
Though the House subcommittee recommended eliminating all financing next year
for antisatellite laser research, it retained money for other laser development.
Congressional aides said the proposed cut to the Air Force·s $21.4 million budget
request for such work would eliminate two of three areas of development, for a
total reduction of $6.5 million.
At least one public-interest group has seized on the issue. Last week, the Global
Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, based in ýrunswick, Me.,
said that if Congress approved the antisatellite money, ´the barrier to weapons in
space will have been destroyed.µ
c
  

Most types of laser are an inherently pure source of light; they emit near-
monochromatic light with a very well defined range of wavelengths. ýy careful
design of the laser components, the purity of the laser light (measured as the
"linewidth") can be improved more than the purity of any other light source. This
makes the laser a very useful source for spectroscopy. The high intensity of light
that can be achieved in a small, well collimated beam can also be used to induce a
nonlinear optical effect in a sample, which makes techniques such as Raman
spectroscopy possible. Other spectroscopic techniques based on lasers can be used
to make extremely sensitive detectors of various molecules, able to measure
molecular concentrations in the parts-per-1012 (ppt) level. Due to the high power
densities achievable by lasers, beam-induced atomic emission is possible: this
technique is termed Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIýS
[edit]



Main article: Lunar laser ranging experiment

When the Apollo astronauts visited the moon, they planted retroreflector arrays
to make possible the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment. Laser beams are focused
through large telescopes on Earth aimed toward the arrays, and the time taken for
the beam to be reflected back to Earth measured to determine the distance
between the Earth and Moon with high accuracy.
'  c!c'c"!#

ýoth laser technology and space operations have matured substantially in the
recent decades, offering synergistic possibilities of using lasers from space-based
platforms to improve US military capabilities. Coherent laser light offers a
number of unique advantages as does the space environment, permitting speed-of-
light applications such as optical communication, illumination, target designation,
active remote sensing and high-energy weapons. Many of these concepts have been
discussed in recent strategic studies, but it will take innovative leadership and
close cooperation between researchers and operators to bring the concepts from
the laboratory to the field.

One of the recent themes in US military thought has been achieving global
awareness in order to establish dominant battlespace awareness. According to
General Ronald Fogleman, AF Chief of Staff, ´The reality is that in the first
quarter of the 21st century it will become possible to find, fix or track and target
anything that moves on the surface of the earth.µ1 Whomever has such awareness,
the theory goes, will have the upper hand in any military operation. Awareness
equates to the possession of adequate information. Achieving global awareness will
require obtaining, processing, and relaying massive amounts of information in near-
real time across vast distances. Space-based laser systems bring many unique
characteristics to the battlefield, and thus represent powerful tools in achieving
global awareness.

Each of the new Air Force core competencies ³ Air and Space Superiority, Global
Attack, Rapid Global Mobility, Precision Engagement, Information Superiority, and
Agile Combat Support ³ highlights an area of expertise for the AF in
accomplishing both warfighting and military-operations-other-than-war (MOOTW)
missions. As discussed more fully in a later section, lasers in space can enhance
each of these competencies. (A comprehensive list of acronyms is included at the
end of this report.) Space-based laser systems offer unique opportunities to help
the warfighters of the AF and the other services achieve these missions.

The Department of Defense and NASA are testing various space-based laser
concepts, many of which have high military utility. While some projects are good
candidates for collaboration, the overall development is ad hoc. There is a clear
need for more overarching coordination across the agencies and between the
researchers and the warfighters. This study proposes a common framework for
lasers in space, and should serve as a catalyst to further cooperative development
of the more attractive concepts.

„
 $

The thesis of this study is that many emerging military requirements can be met
through the use of laser systems deployed on space platforms. Laser technology
has matured sufficiently in the past decade to provide highly reliable, cost-
effective, energy-efficient and wavelength-flexible systems that can be applied to
a variety of missions, such as remote sensing and communication. Access to space
is maturing with new launch vehicles on the horizon. The unique characteristics of
the space environment greatly enhance the utility of deploying lasers in space.
These include the lack of any medium to attenuate the beam and the ready access
to the entire global surface. This synergy of lasers in space offers the warfighter
a new and vastly more competitive tool in future conflicts. However, technology
developers must move aggressively to field prototypes that demonstrate the
capabilities and potential of space-based laser systems for a variety of missions.
The various avenues to expedite bringing the most promising concepts into fielded
systems is the final focus of this report.

In an increasingly resource-constrained environment, the Air Force must

successfully blend strategy and technology. One straightforward definition of
strategy is ´a broad concept, embracing an objective, resources, and a plan for
using those resources to achieve the objective.µ2 There are two relevant types of
strategies. First, acquisition strategy applies R&D resources (funds, manpower,
facilities, etc.) to develop new technologies that match operational deficiencies
identified by the warfighting commands. Second, operational strategy examines
the threats to the security and national interests of the US and its allies, matches
current capabilities against the threats to achieve military objectives, and
highlights areas where improvements in capabilities could enhance military success.
It is at this point that the two strategies interact. The warfighter must face any
conflict with the tools at hand, striving for victory with diligence and ingenuity.
The military researcher must work with equal diligence and ingenuity to find new
or more effective tools for achieving military objectives, which in some cases will
require new technology and in others might mean repackaging existing technology
into new systems. It is increasingly important that the system developers and the
operational users work closely together. One new AF attempt to generate this
synergy is the concept of battle labs that are discussed at the end of this report.
c


The field of laser technology has greatly expanded since the laser was first
demonstrated in 1960. Innovative minds have found many applications of these
technologies, including active remote sensing, active imaging, optical communication,
power beaming, and high-energy weapons. Since the early 1960s, the complexity of
the military missions has dramatically increased, with more diverse theaters of
operation, expanded spectrums of conflict, and tremendously increased
requirements for information delivered in almost immediately to the warfighter.
It would be impossible in a short report to comprehensively address all the unique
aspects of lasers in the space environment as well as the potential military
applications. The scope of this paper is limited to surveying a subset of ´lasers in
spaceµ concepts to establish a basis on which they can be compared and
development decisions can be made. Each concept could be examined in more
depth, and some of the concepts have been discussed in other, more focused
reports, but that is beyond the scope of this report. Also, the operational
applications could be discussed in more detail, which would lead to concepts of
operations (CONOPS) that consider operational employment, doctrinal implications,
constraints, proper force size, interfaces with other systems, and so forth. Again,
this type of discussion is beyond the scope of this study. While it is impossible to
give sufficient detail about each concept to fully explain the range of benefits and
costs, this discussion will give the reader a firm understanding of the relevant
technological issues.

In the near term, most applications for lasers in the space environment involve non-
weapons systems. Although this study discusses laser weapons in some detail, it
focuses on non-weapons applications that could be developed in the near future to
enhance the warfighters· capability. As the analysis will show, a plethora of
maturing concepts exist that can increase military effectiveness.

The intended audience consists of the individuals in both the research laboratories
and the operational commands, including the innovators in the battlelabs, who are
building their program plans and looking to the future technological and operational
requirements of the Air Force. Hopefully, these groups will find value in the study
of the integration of laser technology in the space environment with the needs of
the warfighter. However, the scientist at the bench will find the technical details
lacking and the warfighter will find the operational details inadequate. This study
serves simply as a compilation of various concepts for space-based laser systems
and a brief analysis of the most likely near-term concepts.
 In telecommunications, rc

„
 (FSO) is an optical
communication technology that uses light propagating in free space to transmit
data between two points. The technology is useful where the physical connections
by the means of fibre optic cables are impractical due to high costs or other
considerations.

   
[hide]

? 1 History
? 2 Usage and technologies
? 3 Applications
? 4 Advantages
? 5 Disadvantages
? 6 See also
? 7 References
? 8 External links

[edit]History

Optical communications, in various forms, have been used for thousands of years.
The Ancient Greeks polished their shields to send signals during battle. In the
modern era, semaphores and wireless solar telegraphs called heliographs were
developed, using coded signals to communicate with their recipients.

In 1880 Alexander Graham ýell and his then-assistant Charles Sumner

Tainter created the Photophone, at ýell's newly established Volta Laboratory in
Washington, D.C. ýell considered it his most important invention. The device
allowed for the transmission of sound and conversations on a beam of light. On
June 3, 1880, ýell conducted the world's first wireless telephone transmission
between two buildings, some 213 meters apart.[1] Its first practical use came in
military communication systems many decades later.
Carl Zeiss Jena developed the Lichtsprechgerät 80 (direct translation: light
speaking device) that the German army used in their World War II anti-aircraft
defense units.[2]

The invention of lasers in the 1960s revolutionized free space optics. Military
organizations were particularly interested and boosted their development. However
the technology lost market momentum when the installation of optical
fiber networks for civilian uses was at its peak.
[edit]Usage and technologies

Free-space optical links can be implemented using infrared laser light, although
low-data-rate communication over short distances is possible using LEDs. IrDA is a
very simple form of free-space optical communications. Free Space Optics are
additionally used for communications between spacecraft. Maximum range for
terrestrial links is in the order of 2 to 3 km (1.2 to 1.9 mi),[3] but the stability and
quality of the link is highly dependent on atmospheric factors such as rain, fog,
dust and heat. Amateur radio operators have achieved significantly farther
distances (173 miles in at least one occasion) using incoherent sources of light from
high-intensity LEDs. [4] However, the low-grade equipment used
limited bandwidths to about 4 kHz. In outer space, the communication range of
free-space optical communication is currently in the order of several thousand
kilometers[5], but has the potential to bridge interplanetary distances of millions of
kilometers, using optical telescopes as beam expanders[6].

Secure free-space optical communications have been proposed using a laser N-slit
interferometer where the laser signal takes the form of an interferometric
pattern. Any attempt to intercept the signal causes the collapse of the
interferometric pattern.[7] Although this method has only been demonstrated at
laboratory distances, in principle it could be applied over large distances in space.
[edit]Applications

Two solar-powered satellites communicating optically in space via lasers.

Typically scenarios for use are:

V? LAN-to-LAN connections on campuses at Fast Ethernet or Gigabit
Ethernet speeds.
V? LAN-to-LAN connections in a city. example, Metropolitan area network.
V? To cross a public road or other barriers which the sender and receiver do not
own.
V? Speedy service delivery of high-bandwidth access to optical fiber networks.
V? Converged Voice-Data-Connection.
V? Temporary network installation (for events or other purposes).
V? Reestablish high-speed connection quickly (disaster recovery).
V? As an alternative or upgrade add-on to existing wireless technologies.
V? As a safety add-on for important fiber connections (redundancy).
V? For communications between spacecraft, including elements of a satellite
constellation.
V? For inter- and intra[8]-chip communication.
The light beam can be very narrow, which makes FSO hard to intercept, improving
security. In any case, it is comparatively easy to encrypt any data traveling across
the FSO connection for additional security. FSO provides vastly
improved EMI behavior using light instead of microwaves.
[edit]Advantages

RONJA is a free implementation of FSO using high-intensity LEDs.

V? Ease of deployment
V? License-free long-range operation (in contrast with radio communication)
V? High bit rates
V? Low bit error rates
V? Immunity to electromagnetic interference
V? Full duplex operation
V? Protocol transparency
V? Very secure due to the high directionality and narrowness of the beam(s)
V? No Fresnel zone necessary

NASA Uses Space Lasers to Map the World·s Forests [PICS]

Typically, we·d associated terms such as ´lasers from spaceµ with global
destruction. However, the good folks at NASA have used three satellites and
LIDAR laser technology to do something much more interesting ³ and with much
more value for residents of Earth.

NASA scientists have used data collected by the ICESat, Terra and Aqua
satellites to create a topographical map that shows the height of forests around
the world, from the rain forests of the Amazon to the redwood and sequoia
forests of Northern California. They say their efforts have produced a collection
and visualization of data that is the first of its kind.

LIDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, uses laser pulses to determine the distance
between given objects. It was used in this case to capture ´vertical slices of
surface features,µ according to NASA. Over seven years, scientists collected data
from 250 million laser pulses. This data on the Earth·s vertical profile was mashed
up with other data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS), which gathers information about radiation, cloud cover, changes in the
oceans and atmosphere and much more.

Data from a fourth satellite could be added to this set later in the decade to make
these maps more detailed. The current data set will help scientists study how much
carbon our planet·s vegetation stores and how quickly the same carbon cycles back
into Earth·s atmosphere.
According to NASA, we Earthlings are responsible for releasing about 7 billion
tons of carbon each year, mostly as carbon dioxide. Of those emissions, 2 billion
tons of carbon end up in the ocean and 3 billion tons are later found in the
atmosphere. ´It·s unclear where the last two billion tons of carbon go,· the NASA
site reads, ´though scientists suspect forests capture and store much of it as
biomass through photosynthesis.µ

Figuring out our forests· biomass starts with calculating tree height around the
globe.

These maps can also help with scientists working on problems such as forest fires
and species of animals indigenous to specific forests.

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 %

Lasers are also finding many new uses in space missions. No, not in light sabers!

For one thing, lasers can be used in a device called a spectrometer.

A spectrometer uses light to identify the chemical composition of matter. For

example, as light passes through a gas, the gas soaks up certain colors, or
wavelengths, of light. Different gases absorb different wavelengths. So the light
that comes out the other side of a gas cloud will have a unique ´fingerprint.µ A
spectrometer can read that fingerprint and identify the gas.

For example, a spectrometer ´looking atµ sunlight that has passed through the air
above a city can detect what gases the air contains, including all the pollution from
cars and factories.
A new kind of laser spectrometer can go even farther and measure exactly how
much of a gas is present. Want to look for signs of life on Mars? One way is to look
for methane. Methane is a gas produced by living things, like bacteria. Even tiny
amounts of methane on Mars could mean something is alive and well!

Let·s say scientists send their special spectrometer to Mars as part of a lander or
rover mission. The scientists know that methane³and only methane³absorbs a
certain wavelength of light. So, like tuning in a radio station, they ´tuneµ their laser
spectrometer to that exact wavelength. The spectrometer·s laser beam aims at a
distant rock, zipping through the Martian air, bouncing off the rock, and shining
back into the spectrometer·s ´eye.µ If the returning laser light is weaker, it can
only mean that methane in the Martian air has absorbed some of the energy. And
how much energy has been absorbed tells how much methane is present.