On today’s edition of Marc Boucher’s most excellent SpaceRef eNewsletter, there was a video of the International Space Station being ‘painted’ by a green laser.
This gets a 9+ on my cool-o-meter…
One of the ongoing debates about an earth-based space elevator is how will the tether climbers be powered. Lasers were the possibility originally suggested by Dr. Brad Edwards in his and Eric Westling’s reference work and they still may be the way to go, at least for part of the journey. But alternatives now, especially the solar power solution originally suggested (I think) by Ben Shelef may replace or augment laser power.
And, a related ‘oldie but goodie’. This is from the 2009 Space Elevator games and shows airborne targets being laser painted by the LaserMotive and Kansas City Space Pirates teams.