Laser System to be Tested in Boulder, CO 318
luv_jeeps writes "Ball Aerospace is going to test fire a laser beam on Sunday night, as part of the CALIPSO project. If you live in the Colorado/Wyoming area, chances are good that you could see it. The article, a little light on details, says that the beam could be as big around as a basketball hoop."
Colorado? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Colorado? (Score:4, Funny)
Difficulties involved in getting phase coherence with fricken photons has yet to be resolved, but they're working on it.
One thing in Colorado's favour... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:One thing in Colorado's favour... (Score:5, Funny)
There's already one there. [norad.mil]
Re:One thing in Colorado's favour... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:One thing in Colorado's favour... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:One thing in Colorado's favour... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:One thing in Colorado's favour... (Score:2, Interesting)
Nah, this is just the latest idea in snow removal.
Says he who spent today clearing two feet of white stuff from the paths by hand today after the rubber band in the damn snowblower broke.
Its a pity they don't have snow down in Texas. Just think Dubya would have woken up thinking 'hey it must be Christmas', then spend the next five minutes looking for his nose spoon until he finaly remembered he had given it up.
Re:Colorado? (Score:3, Funny)
Someone has to say it. . . (Score:5, Funny)
I think it be cool (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah I actually did watch a Val Kilmer film, But I was young so please forgive me :)
Re:I think it be cool (Score:2)
Re:I think it be cool (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I think it be cool (Score:2)
And be a little more creative than "playing with yourself".
Re:I think it be cool (Score:2)
Re:I think it be cool (Score:2)
Re:I think it be cool (Score:2)
Caution (Score:5, Funny)
"The company has taken special precautions to protect aircraft and birds that might fly into the beam."
I hope all those ducks got the memo.
Re:Caution (Score:5, Funny)
I think that's what they meant...
How the F! do you protect birds that might fly into the beam?
Re:Caution (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Caution (Score:5, Funny)
Let's just hope that they remembered to set aside an appropriate amount of funding in the grant for plum sauce.
Re:Caution (Score:3, Funny)
a-duh! You just paint them all silver first!
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Re:RTFA (Score:5, Informative)
How does it work? Does it work? I don't know, but those are the precautions they say they've taken.
Re:RTFA (Score:5, Funny)
But what about..... FOWL WEATHER??!!!
Sorry. It *had* to be said. Whether it needed to be said out loud, well, that's another story.
Re:Caution (Score:2)
Why do you think the scientists built the thing? Any other reason is a coverup...
yeah, sure (Score:4, Funny)
Re:yeah, sure (Score:2, Funny)
Article: -5, Bad Pun (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, the humanity!!!
PS, Slahdot is fucked. "Score: -5, Bad Pun" is being parsed as no topic at all.
Next week's headline (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Next week's headline (Score:5, Funny)
But the real question..... (Score:2, Redundant)
If so, was it figured out in enough time to provide for the evil Professor's house to be employed in a scheme to re-direct the beam AND make a bunch of popcorn for all the neighborhood children?
tape it please (Score:5, Interesting)
Please
Re:tape it please (Score:2, Funny)
Please
Just for goodness sakes no, no, no Quicktime! Thanks, I just had to clear that up
Re:tape it please (Score:4, Interesting)
Dogg
laser article (Score:5, Funny)
Hehehehehe! Hoo-whee! You guys really crack me up...
A week later.... (Score:5, Funny)
S. Boom (Score:3, Interesting)
This is, after all, what one hears when a lightning bolt strikes.
Too many scifi movies (Score:5, Informative)
The "common laser pointer" they talk about is one milliwatt(mW). That means their laser is 40W, common in industrial laser applications.
A lightning bolt contains roughly enough power to light an entire city for a second or two; it's about a million volts, and about 10,000 amps on average. That's a -trillion- watts. We're talking a MINOR difference in scale here, my friend. A lightning bolt makes a noise because it turns the air around it into superhot plasma, along with any moisture(which expands thousands of times its original volume when vaporized).
If the satellite were to receive that much energy, it'd explode instantaneously, and no, you -wouldn't- hear it, it's in SPACE, there's no AIR, so there's no SOUND- just wanted to get that straightened out, since you seem to have slept through most of your high school and college science classes.
I cannot -believe- the parent got modded up...
Re:Too many scifi movies (Score:5, Insightful)
Why does air have to be turned into "superhot plasma" to make a sonic boom? A supersonic jet doesn't superheat air, per se, it displaces it. A nighthawk doesn't superheat the air, but produces a sonic boom with its tailfeathers.
And since when did anyone say anything about outer space? The event is happening in Colorado. (Not far from outer space, actually, but...)
And you don't have to be a jerk about how incredibly knowledgeable you are -- we get it without the barbs.
Re:Too many scifi movies (Score:2)
Re:Too many scifi movies (Score:2)
Re:Too many scifi movies (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, if you would be looking at the satellite in space and see it explode, you would very much hear it. While it is true that the near absence of air means that a person would not hear any sound from a shockware that travels through the air, but from the explosion that person would very well hear the many high-velocity particles ticking, and thunking against his/her vessel. If you have experienced any explosions of significance, or have enough imagination, you will know what kind of rain of particles I'm talking about. Just a week ago, astronauts were shaken up by a sound that probably was produced by such a space particle [floridatoday.com]. So you would hear the explosion in space, just differently than on earth.
Now about the no air - no sound thing: Things like "there is no sound in space" that they teach kids in high school are ususally oversimplified or just plain wrong [space.com]. Did you know that black holes [space.com] actually emit sounds?
Re:S. Boom (Score:2, Insightful)
If the laser was strong enough to ionize anything, the laser wouldn't work! all of the energy would go into the air molecules and the beam would be stopped only after traveling only a small fraction of the earth's atmosphere.
moral of the story: no sonic boom. the wavelength of light is chosen so as to minimize the deposition of energy into the atmosphere.
Question... kinda.... star trek reference... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Question... kinda.... star trek reference... (Score:5, Insightful)
The other is from a fiction TV show.
Re:Question... kinda.... star trek reference... (Score:5, Interesting)
Phaser [bbc.co.uk]
A ray gun that can stop people in their tracks without harming them may sound like science fiction, but some experts believe it could soon be reality.
The gun is designed to zap its victim with an electric current, using a laser to carry the charge along a beam of ultraviolet light.
The light particles, called photons, would create a path through the air that will be capable of conducting electricity up to a distance of about 100 metres (330 feet).
When the current hits someone, it would interfere with the tiny electrical charges that control the victim's muscles, making movement impossible.
Vital organs protected
But vital organs like the heart and diaphram would not be affected because they are protected by a greater thickness of body tissue.
Corinne Podger of BBC Science: "The stuff of science fiction". Weapons that freeze muscles are already on sale in the United States, but in order to work they have to be held against the victim's skin. They also have to be recharged after each use.
Apart from having a considerable range, the new 'freeze ray gun' could in theory be fired around corners if mirrors were used. It could also have a constant power source.
Talks in California
The gun is the brainchild of American inventor, Eric Herr, vice-president of HSV technologies. Scientists from the UK's Defence Evaluation Research Agency have already been to California to discuss it with him.
No details of the discussions have been disclosed, but a spokesman for the UK Ministry of Defence said the weapon's potential uses were being considered.
So far, Mr Herr's ray gun remains just an idea. He has taken out a patent on the device, but has yet to raise the $500,000 needed to build a full working prototype.
'Ideal weapon'
Initially, the 'freeze ray' could be the size of a small suitcase, but might eventually be reduced to something more like a flashlight.
Mr Herr believes it could be an ideal weapon for peace-keeping forces, or police facing violent criminals.
But already the project has its critics. They argue that such a laser would be impractical in many situations, and could easily damage the sight of innocent by-standers.
Link to HSV Tech [hsvt.org]
NOT a phaser (Score:3, Informative)
There is still no such thing as a phaser, the word has no definition, beyond that found in Star Trek. This device may mimic one of the effects of the fictional weapon, but th
Re:NOT a phaser (Score:2)
And of course a large wad of cash to defend their choice of names from the army of Paramount lawyers who would soon descend on them....
Re:Question... kinda.... star trek reference... (Score:4, Funny)
Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
Maser stands for:
Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
Phaser stands for:
Plaid Hippopatamus Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Rotund-mammals.
That's why phasers are so powerful, imagine being bombarded with billions and billions of plaid hippopotami!
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The Allan Parson's Project, Phase 1 (Score:5, Interesting)
Specs (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Specs (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The Allan Parson's Project, Phase 1 (Score:5, Informative)
There's a PDF here [nasa.gov] that describes the prototype laser as delivering 110 mJ per pulse. At 20 pulses per second, that's about 2 watts average power--but of course the peak power in each (short) pulse will be much higher.
prepare to be scanned (Score:5, Interesting)
See Infrared? (Score:5, Interesting)
from the post
"If you live in the Colorado/Wyoming area, chances are good that you could see it."
from the data on the sat:
"Part of NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder program, Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO), is a mission dedicated to studying the impact that clouds and aerosols have on the Earth's radiation balance."
Re:See Infrared? (Score:4, Informative)
Ball will provide an active sensor that probes the atmosphere with green and infrared laser light
They're using IR (almost certainly 1064 nm) and green (almost certainly 532 nm) beams.
Re:See Infrared? (Score:4, Informative)
Its used for atmospheric observations.
Utah State University [usu.edu] - This page seems to be down at the moment
University of Western Ontario [physics.uwo.ca] - Here is another University with one
Boulder (Score:2, Interesting)
LASER ? (Score:3, Interesting)
That's why you can use powder or smoke (which is composed of tiny piece of material) to actually see them (by reflection of the photons on the particle).
If it's a real laser can someone tell me why we should see it ?
I know that the atmosphere is polluted, but not THAT much, is it ?
Re:LASER ? (Score:2)
Re:LASER ? (Score:5, Informative)
you're thinking of red lasers. Red light passes through air much better than the higher frequencies (blue, green, yellow, etc). A great example of this is the color of the sky. Light from the sun passing through the atmosphere has its blue components scattered much more readily than the lower freqency components, so you see the sky as being blue. When the sun is rising/setting you see the sky as red because red light isn't scattered well the red light that reaches your eyes is much more intense
so, why are these people using green light that they know will be scattered? Because that's exactly what tells us stuff about the atmosphere!how much was scattered at position x compared to position y? how much was scattered at time t1 as compared to time t2?
The pollution causes more light to be scattered, for sure, but that's not WHY you see the light. Rest easy :)
Re:LASER ? (Score:2)
I do have my logical answer now.
Re:LASER ? (Score:3, Informative)
Dude, get your facts straight.
The Tyndall effect or Raleigh scattering shows that small particles scatter higher frequency (blue) light more than lower frequency (red) light. Both "pass through" air just fine because they're not absorbed, but the lower-frequency light is scattered less easily. At sunrise/sunset, there is much more air (and also more dust) for the sun to go through, so more light is scattered, so more of the red light is scattered, so the sky appears redder.
As for why light is scatt
Re:LASER ? (Score:2)
You've never been to Denver, have you?
See it? (Score:2)
Re:See it? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:See it? (Score:3, Interesting)
Most high-powered green lasers make green light by doubling the 1064 nm light produced by a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser. So it's probably 532nm - it certainly looks like it. Google confirms that doubled Nd:YAG is indeed a popular laser source for LIDAR applications. The experiment also uses IR light, so you can convenient
The 12:00 News (Score:5, Funny)
Are they giving out safety goggles? (Score:3, Interesting)
Those damn scientific standards... (Score:5, Funny)
I'm Dutch. We play soccer, not basketball.
Insensitive clods.
Re:Those damn scientific standards... (Score:3, Informative)
Too bad I misread that (Score:3, Funny)
"Laser System to be Tested on SCO'
Obligatory LOTR-RoK analogy (Score:2)
In Kassel already in 1977 ... (Score:2, Interesting)
Another occasion when art was faster than science ? Well, not really.
CC.
ACK! (Score:2, Funny)
Or the sun! It could cause it to go nova!
I need to upgrade my tin foil hat... it isn't strong enough to resist "lasers" yet.
2 cool lasers... (Score:5, Interesting)
Gulp.
Then there's (2) the shuttle-based LIDAR, which actually shoots a laser from the open shuttle bay to the ground, and ranges the distance to the ground, to sub-meter accuracy / 1-10 cm precision. This means a pretty darn bright laser is shot at the ground and typically ranges the tallest thing it finds - they hope for canopy for land cover work, but in an open area, it might be you. NASA usually told people it was "like radar" which it is in its methods...
but it uses laser light.
So somewhere tucked into the mission materials for the shuttle flights that contained it is a cute little disclaimer telling you that yes, it is a laser and yes, it could conceivably pass right over you and yes, if you looked up right into the path of the lidar you could get hurt - so FER CHRISSAKE DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY INTO THE SHUTTLE BAY LASER AS IT PASSES DIRECTLY OVERHEAD or words to that effect. But they put them somewhere where it was legally required, buit they did not pass out press materials that said a giant space laser might be shot at your house sometime in the next two weeks... they traded full disclosure for widespread panic.
That plus the innumerable people who would JUST HAFTA go outside armed with jpass and JUST HAFTA look right up the barrel... like looking in the garden hose to find out why the water ain't coming out. Here's your sign.
the first laser test failed (Score:2, Funny)
here, you can see how the laser glanced off its target, without a scratch:
first laser test [starwars.com]Can't be seen from Fort Collins, CO (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Birds? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Birds? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Birds? (Score:5, Informative)
The article says it's "about 40,000 times more powerful than a laser pointer", and 40k*5mW=200 watts. Since the beam diameter is "the size of a basketball hoop", nothing would be bursting into flames, although serious eye damage - to birds or pilots - could result.
Although come to think of it, for a LIDAR application I guess the beam is probably pulsed, so the situation is a bit more complicated. At any rate there's a safety shutoff mechanism as someone else pointed out.
Re:Birds? (Score:3, Interesting)
You have to be careful with power measurements with lasers; there are several different ways to measure power and they all come up with similar units...
The key thing here is that this laser is q-switched, while a laser pointer is continuous-wave. Meaning the laser pointer is on all the time, while this laser is on for brief instances several times a second.
The power delivered, during that brief instance
Re:Birds? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Birds? (Score:5, Funny)
This from a country which just finished eating 45 million turkeys? [eatturkey.com]
Re:Light on details? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Light on details? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Light on details? (Score:3, Informative)
In summary, you would see a bright enough beam in the atmosphere even if there were no dust in the air.
Re:Light on details? (Score:2)
Yeah, Linux would make this article soOOoo much more interesting.
Re:I for one am excited (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I for one am excited (Score:3, Interesting)
But I cannot tell, as I have not heard of the project for a year or two. I am not sure if that means it's a failure or that I am lost.
Re:I for one am excited (Score:2)
It's supposed to shoot down artillery shells (i.e. big lumps of metal with no guidance, fuel, or other fragile bits), although nobody's sure entirely how.
And it's not really developed for the US. It's developed for Israel.
Re:I for one am excited (Score:3, Informative)
You are thinking of a different laser system. There is a ground-based system designed to do what you're talking about, but there is also one mounted in an aircraft for shooting down missiles.
Re:I for one am excited (Score:4, Funny)
I suspect Marvin the Martian will be disappointed with the outcome of the test:
"Where's the KABOOM? There was supposed to be an earth shattering KABOOM!!"
Re:I for one am excited (Score:2, Funny)
Secondly, you say that we have heard of "laster beams." I am unaware of this invention or of its mention in the classic science fiction film, Austin Powers.
Re:laser beam spread (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:laser beam spread (Score:2)
Note the difference in brightness, too.
Or, maybe it has something to do with the optical properties of air near the laser beam (ionization, maybe).
Re:laser beam spread (Score:2, Interesting)
Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
Laser light is monochromatic and in phase and polorized, but there is no reason why it should not spread. In fact, I have put a lens in front of my laser and it spreads quite nicely.
PS: did you know that air of different temperatures or pressure has a different diffractive index and could be used as a lens?)
Re:laser beam spread (Score:2, Interesting)
I skimmed over the CALIPSO site linked as well as the nasa site linked from that page but was unable to find a detailed explanation of how the system worked.
The explanations did mention that it is planning on mapping the atmosphere, I would venture a guess that they were doing some processing based on known inform
Re:Arrr my eyes! (Score:2)
-Trillian
Re:Oooh. (Score:2, Insightful)