[Weeenion]

I'm curious if you could destroy a SpaceX Satelite with a basic laser pointers. Easily enough for normal state actors and some university or engineering lab.

You need only to track it and shoot your laser up there (its only 500km) and if it can't dissipate the energy fast enough, it would overheat.

[aerostable_slug]

The Russians have laser dazzlers designed to degrade/"jam" electro-optical imaging satellites. These are currently mounted to trucks and at least one airborne testbed. They are significantly more powerful than laser pointers and they have a prayer of accurately pointing the beam to hit the targeted satellites.

That said, they are dazzlers and not destroyers — they're designed to prevent American recce satellites from cuing American strategic bombers to the location of mobile missile launchers, so just dazzling the satellite's primary sensor accomplishes their task. Of course, that won't work against space-based SAR, but they have RF jammers (and decoys) for that.

[cantor_S_drug]

A simple way would be to send up a satellite filled with "bullets" in the orbit. At the opportune moment, the satellite will fire these bullets and they will place themselves in the paths of these satellites (no need to track and target the satellites, the satellites will fly towards the bullets as their paths are fixed), boom space debris and subsequent chain reaction.

[thisislife2]

Already done 40+ years ago by Soviet Russia - the Salyut-3 carried a self-defence gun that fired in orbit called the Almaz Space Cannon: https://www.russianspaceweb.com/almaz_ops2.html

[HelloNurse]

Are you kidding? Are you comparing a hobby project like shooting a laser from the ground, using a precise servo mount to track the target, vs. flying to space a large payload and then shoot bullets with enough precision to hit the target and enough speed to damage it? It would be vastly larger (including the necessary rocket) and more expensive.

[IT4MD]

A. This leaves a semi-permanent hazard in orbit for all other satellites. (Semi, because it can be cleaned up, but it's difficult, expensive and no laws require the idiots that do this to clean it up)

B. The Russians already have this tech and have "practiced" with it a few times, so have already added untold hazards in orbit.

C. The people that cause these problems, ignore the hazards left behind and let others simply die.

This is a horrific idea and not new. Let's not do more of it.

[RobotToaster]

If your laser pointer is a few megawatts sure.

[BobbyTables2]

Try destroying a can of soda with a laser pointer first…

[__alexs]

Not too hard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBVlL0FNbSE

[Weeenion]

Does your laser pointer has a hard upper Watt limit?

Consumer grade / privat buyable laser can easily be bought.

And would i destroy a soda can by overheating it slowly and steadily because the can has no easy way of dissipating heat and has electronics in it which are not heat resistent?

[dylan604]

I think "destroy" gets misconstrued in people's mind as exploding as a default. Rendering useless would be another way of describing it.

Edit: what kind of laser would you be using to pull this off though? the amount of time the satellite would be visible and in range of your beam would be limited. they roughly have the same orbital period as the ISS which I've personally seen many times which is my point of reference. it's only visible for a very short time, so you'd need a very hot beam to work in that time frame. would it be effective as an additive heating. as in, would it cool off before the next time it came within range?

[JKCalhoun]

Delivering that kind of power through all of the atmosphere between you and satellite is going to be a problem. And it's not sticking around overhead waiting for you to heat it up slowly.

[dylan604]

The through the atmosphere bit is what brought us DLP TVs/projectors!

[ACCount37]

A Starlink V2 Mini sat (what they're currently launching with Falcon 9) has a total solar panel area of about 10.5 * 2.5 *2 = 105 m^2.

Solar irradiance in LEO is about 1350 W/m^2 when unobstructed. A space-grade solar panel reflects 5%-10% of that back as light, with the rest absorbed as either heat or electricity.

This should give you an idea of what kind of thermal flux the satellite is designed to be dealing with.

[tatjam]

Also you have to consider that even top-notch lasers have a divergence (out of memory, I may be wrong by an order of magnitude) of 10mrad or so, and you are physically limited to not much better than that, so you need pretty insane powers to damage, let alone destroy, a satellite at LEO altitude.

[Razengan]

Can I drink the soda first?

Oh come on you guys I thought this would be my ticket to 6000 ;—;

[dotnet00]

Seems like a pretty bad idea to be pointing a laser at the sky unless you're a government and can do the stuff necessary to not inadvertently blind pilots.