Can You See A Laser Pointer From The Space Station? 

Is that your excuse for 9/11?

@@SteveVi0lence lmao

Sure Captain Twat...

SteveVi0lence lmao

@@SteveVi0lence lmao

@THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN more like the láser god

He´ll burn straight through the ISS :D

Don't give him this challenge, he will try to pop it with a laser ;-(

He will melt a hole in the wall :P

He would laugh at 5mw

Answers at 6:42

Joe thx

That's pretty neat! I might have to try that for myself one night.

Did you recover the photons that were dissolved in the atmosphere in the process? :)

Could you post a link here as well?

Oh you could phase-modulate the laser and use that to confirm the distance to the space station, that would be cool.

Are the live feeds still active? Because I was watching a feed the other night, while also monitoring the ISS tracker website, and the images of the land the ISS was passing over didn't seem to match, so I guessed I was watching an old feed or something.

J Gregory Graves Some have more intellectual curiosity than others. Some of us like to read an entire book, or article, &some just wanna thumb through& look at pictures with captions.

@@Chief2Moon Yep, it's what makes the world go round... so to speak : )

8 minutes is pretty short

They should just Google it. Then the answer is instant 😉.

Long? It's only 8 minutes

Me! Thank you.

Well someone had to say it

God Bless You child.

Me

Thank you kindly!

Fail for the searchlights, though. And that was two 1-watt blue lasers. Green is much more visible to the eye, in terms of frequency response, but still doubtful that a single 5mW green laser would be visible from 500km into space. I'm sure the atmosphere would diffuse or filter most of that energy anyway.

There is not really such a thing as a fail when it comes to properly conducted experiments. Just positive or negative results ;)

_at least 10 others have too_ Not always. It's a fun theory but unproven. What it means is, "don't even bother trying," so those 10 become 0. Where would we be if it was always 0? The problem is caucasians are the founders of civilization and technology, who are also the worlds smallest minority. And people are upset we invent everything and want us to stop so they have a chance at getting 1. But they will always be 0. Social Darwinism.

+Cythil the experiment was for the search lights, as explained, the blue laser was only to align the search lights and was turned off to allow for the search lights to be seen. It's like experimental drug testing and only the control group lived, and calling it a good drug test. That's not a properly conducted experiment!

Again. Even when you get a negative result it is still a result Officer Meow Meow Fuzzyface. Then you know that the search lights in that setup won't cut it. Now I admit I have not read there research papers. But from what I can tell it was a resounding success that gave negative results. ^_^

Paul Paulson school lazerings would happen

I read this in Will Wheaton's voice because he was the reader for the Audiobook "What If".

what if we CROSS THE BEAM!

Look at Isaac Arthur channel, idk the exact video, it's one of the space warfare, stating why lasers as space weapons are a bad idea and useless...

I knew I'd find a comment like that somewhere, hah

What about self defense

*ISS explodes

you had aeriel food delivery?

@@natesmartkid6493 You could see the laser from ground level from over a mile away.

@@scottd9448 yup. I live in an apartment (4 stories) and shit mate I could shine towards those skyscrapers

That's assault, you can get arrested for that, consider yourself lucky and never do something like that ever again

Such a great comment...

best comment.

I came

👍

Your comment pleases me.

So glad to hear from a objective pilot with a real experience 😅 thank you for your time

​@@lusiscuswho is your comment aimed at? I have trouble working out who is replying to who😢

@@CraigLandsberg-lk1ep hmmmmm, I think I have somehow posted on the wrong video, I do apologise.

funny thing is, that's just an old camera mounted on the ISS :P

Yeah, i admit very nicely computer generated sunset.

Beware Cthulhu

Michal for berevity I suggest: SND NOODS Would be faster/easier to send in morse.

stinkyfungus tru

post bobs

Or perhaps more fitting would be: T R A N S M I T N U D E S but its longer

Never mind the lasers; call the hams. There is amateur radio onboard the ISS, and they use that to communicate when the fancy stuff goes pear-shaped.

Sar Jim Damn!!!

glad to hear they got what they deserved. i have a 200mw laser. but i am well aware of the dangers. (including the invisible wider spread beam you get with green lasers)

4.5 years??? BS.. messing around with a laser shouldn’t net you any longer than a few months jail time

@@drifterax7731 blinding a pilot thats flying a plane with 300 people is pretty bad

@Håkan Lundberg the problem is that this generally happens during landing. not exactly a time you want to be blinding a pilot is it?

Scott Major Yup, I've been hit once while flying an Arrow. Thankfully, it wasn't bad and I just went out and flew around the practice area for my region for about 30 minutes while my night vision returned. Reported it, but nothing ever came out of it.

Is it in any way likely that someone with a mirror or even a reflective wristwatch can use it to point it at a helicopter and actually be noticed? This is a survival tip I've heard a few times and always doubted until I saw this video.

Sheev Palpatine During daylight it needs to be really reflective (signal mirror) and the pilot has to be looking for it. I've seen those anti bird devices, that are basically mirrors spinning in the wind, on buildings from miles away, but it wasn't like they took my attention; more like I happened to look over there and noticed the strobe effect. At night, a strong flashlight is easily seen from miles. Just as you can see headlights miles away when up on a hill, the same thing applies. The difference is the "background". I can see you waiving a flashlight in the middle of nowhere with no other light sources much easier than if you were waiving the same flashlight at me from the center of Times Square.

MP I just had two reports from separate pilots out over the ocean say they were hit with lasers literally a few hours ago. I'm like, you are over the ocean right now, how is that even possible? We get reports quite frequently.

FriskyDingo it must be Atlantis or people at ISS on their resting time.

Everything is better with lasers.

L.D. Johnson you do realize that 300-400km is not that much of a range?)) and you do see photons arriving from the Sun, right?)

ditto

S C I think the sun produces a bit more than 5mw of visible light. xD Srsly tho its amazing how little power is needed to transmit information across such distance. I dont know how much energy you would need to do the same with a radio but I assume a lot more and also you’d probably need a big antena on both ends.

Lol ikr! Stop babbling and get to the point!

@@LOLmusics boo hoo

Josh 😭 😢 😭:( :( 😖😖😖😭😭😭😤😤😔😢😢😭😭

@@LOLmusics you already said that, cutie pie

Tony Graham why would you watch a video on this topic if you weren’t looking for an explanation? If you were looking for a yes or a no, a simple google search would have sufficed- not an eight minute long video. This isn’t a tutorial with two minutes of irrelevant babbling at the start, it’s an explanation of something.

Astronomy Live .... .. .. ... ...

All dots

Astronomy Live Do it, please!

And use a bigass laser atleast 1w green.

Could you program the mount to track the stations trajectory and at the right speed though ? As they are only designed to track at speed of the earths rotation I presume. TIA

Somewhere between 0.1% and 100% depending on the weather.

LOL, actually the most accurate answer that can be given!

Considering that every bit of laser you see as a line, is a bit of laser not getting through the atmospere, I would say "more than ideal for this purpose"

This question was on my mind throughout the entire video. I was expecting at least a rough estimate, in favorable weather conditions of course. Since anybody trying this would probably wait for a clear sky.

Also depending on altitude and pollution level. But given that the raw brightness under ideal conditions would be like Sirius: Even with 50% atmospheric absorption, it would still be easily visible.

Manimozhian Kandasamy correct

I know right

@ Manimozhian Kandasam, Exactly, atmosphere is the reason we see stars as freckles of light, something visibly "twinkling", instead of pure dots of light (which they are), or in worst case the atmosphere totally obstructs any light from the stars.

Even with all of that it can be seen. In fact- the 'space freaks' use a laser to deflect a laser off of the moon. As their are multiple mirror deflectors on the moon. Not you standard over the counter ones. These are bored people with money to spend. They can return and their laser sent up even though brief. So yes- it is more than plausible cause the ISS is nowhere near the distance of the moon. They can see traffic, lights, fires, with no real equipment from the ISS. Ham Operators make contact with them on the ISS with no beam as they pass over. Which is on the 100-400mhz bands. HF would have a dopplar effect and make contact even MORE likely. VHF/UHF has almost no propagation so with that being said. It would take a fixed laser to hit the space station. Take 500 feet of thread and make it straight between the 2. Then move the start of the thread 1/16th of a inch and see how far it misses at the end. By hand it would be VERY hard to hit and maintain. A fixed one with a telescope inline would work and be seen by the crew as well. There is footage of lasers hitting the ISS actually. Green one but of unknown power and focus.

Attenuation is not nearly as big a deal from the ground up as it is from space down, owing to the distance from the object that the intervening air is located at. There is another video on this, something like, what would pictures look like if you used hubble to take pictures of the ground.

Was it a red one?

Start writing it.....

When using lasers at that scale, and pointing it to the sky like that, you’ve talked with the nearby airports and/or the FAA beforehand to get it cleared. Those lasers can be up to 60W, so if the beam hits a pilot correctly, they could get permanent eye damage in under a second. Using lasers in 1998 required high voltage, water cooling, advanced software, and a lot of space, so they most likely dropped it because it was a hassle. I know this comment is 4 years old as of now, but felt like giving you an answer, haha.

And now it's even cheaper since you don't have to talk to FAA, just fire up Flightradar24 and watch out for planes lol

Lol add styropyros laser bazooka

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyus_(spacecraft)

That's OK, I only aim at small moons

just make sure its a moon

My small moon aims it laser at MC-80s....

Paul Weaver. That's no moon, it's a space station!

Took the words right out of my mouth, and you took the time to calculate it! Well done sir!

someone gets it yes sir! exactly, this is a year old ...if you see this? read my comment it's last one im sure lol

He didn't forget to mention it. It is simply irrelevant. He also didn't mention correcting for time dilation either and for the same reason.

Yeah, it's not too insane though. You can get up to 6w handheld lasers online from places like pyrocreations. I've got the 3 watt and its pretty awesome, a lot brighter than my old 1w and 2w wicked lasers.

You can buy all the components and put one together for pretty cheap. My 1.8 watt handheld was around $140.

Yeah you really need to wear glasses for anything over 500mw no matter how careful you are being. That's just what I do though, you should probably wear glasses with any laser over 5mw but where's the fun in that lol

I bought one on Ebay that'll light your cigarette or yer doobage no probby.

Standard

@Mag yep... you need to turn on the targeting computer!

Aww nothing like an old Luke Skywalker line from the movie Star Wars to make a joke! Good job, I like it! 🤣🤣🤣

Jeff somersby yeah i used to shoot ants with a tank back in the old country

Yeah, I can confirm this happened with me. Naturally, all Lukes born are excellent aimers. Well, besides when I am using my telescope but that is because it has a cheap mount. I suppose the answer at the end of the day is you get what you pay for.... :(

Stay on target

those guys with the boards accidentally sent a bad word about the orange haired Martian president's wife.

You were trying to signal a helicopter pre walkie talkie? Did the helicopter have a flux capacitor and topped out at 88mph or you just didn’t know radios existed well before helicopters?

Seen ppl did that hardware magic before, it is not ok for daily usage though, since the frame we loss is atrocious.

Laser communication exists and is mainly used for communication between satellites (starlink for example uses it)

CJ Bants-THANK YOU

He was killing me 🥱......thanks

thanks

CJ Bants thanks

Corwin Christensen the first laser was actually bounced off the moon on May 9, in 1962 by MIT. Wait, What? 2629 days before man first set up the retro reflector on the moon to prove the NASA/"Mankind" was actually there. Kinda like those cameras in space that's always takes images of satellites and voyagers travelling through space.

@@vansfpv5198 Are you stupid? They were measuring their own light that they knew the wavelength of from a reflective body in space. The Moon always reflects the Sun, so if you set up your own laser and measure how much light comes back how is that unfeasible?

I haven't heard that before, but I have heard that Buzz Aldrin saw flashes which he didn't understand at the time, turned out to be cosmic rays.

Scatter the light as it is refracting off trillions of dust particles and water molecules...

How high off the ground were you?

I was about 2000 feet above the ground climbing out after doing a touch and go in Ponca City, OK

+Paul Kerman (Kerbonaut) hey there, I was wondering if you are at the maximum cruising altitude of 10.000 meters, and I point the laser in front of the airplane, let's say, 50 meters in front of it, and move it along as the airplane moves, would you be able to see it? If there would be some clouds I suppose you could, but if there wouldn't be?

This is the same scenario as the above video, just on a smaller scale. Again, aiming lasers at aircraft is NEVER a good idea.

Laser incidents seem to happen most near airports, and subsequently, critical phases of flight. A flight crew in the heaviest workload of the flight just doesn't need any surprises or distractions.

Lies. There's no such thing as a 5,000,000 watt laser. Your kids would be dead from a laser with millions of watts of power.

Easy. Right there at the green dot on the ground.

Andrew Elliott That's what that is...

Pyrrhic Wins "that's what that is" what? TIE fighters attached to the pylon. It carries 4.

Andrew Elliott Hmm, I had been trying to find out what ship that was until I saw your comment.

I have bought laser for 3$, so the laser is even cheaper :P

A nice GoTo telescope mount with satellite tracking ability shouldn't be that expensive.

Brighter.

lol, you are technically correct. I was wondering how much.

Ask the people of Alderaan. Wait, you can't... they're dead.

You're talking about weapons now, not just a laser pointer anymore.

Rocket scientist: NEED MOAR BOASTERS !!! Physicist: NEED MOAR POAWER !!!

Alberto Knox Just being the devil's advocate here: "What is a 'Federal Offence' or a 'Federal Prison' or 'time off for good behavior'?" Don't assume RU-vid is watched only/mainly by "USA" residents... Specially Science/Space Videos!. Just say "it's against the Law in the U.S.A." or something... Also: There's many more Countries with Laws against even Owning a Firearm than any Law against what You point Your Laser at (besides airplanes near airports - the most dangerous part of air travel is always taking off or landing) and even less against Owning a Laser Pointer. (One is actually used to kill things, the other one is just a "health hazard" ABOVE certain power levels, mostly to their owners who use it more, and an "annoyance" BELOW them - though MOST people who buy Stronger Lasers are Science minded people that would be careful to, at least, not inconvenience anyone with what they do, much less pointing it to aircraft On Purpose...) BTW: Most prisons in the World are part of "Public infrastructure" which means they're owned by the Countries' Government. Doesn't even make sense to have Privately Owned Prisons really... Specially when it's the Government, its Laws and its Judicial System that Puts people in them and, normally, only for serious Crimes that are actually considered dangerous to the Society/Population/Country... (Who wants to waste money on unnecessary things?...) And NO: Most Countries will NOT give any Less time in prison due to "Good Behavior"... But they WILL increase a Prison Sentence for (any) "Bad Conduit"... Bye then.

You're in the UK, right? You can spend 5 years in your "public infrastructure" for pointing a laser at any vehicle. That is only if you aren't charged with terrorism, which has in fact happened in your country.

These are good things to keep in mind, but also, as a pilot myself, since these thing often happen on approach, where you are looking at the ground in front of you, imagine trying to guide a big object that’s often being blown around by wind at a target only a few meters across while having big black spots burned into your vision. Just don’t shine lasers at aircraft people.

that's if they don't just flat out shoot them dead for "threatening" them

Bill Kerr In the nethelands those high powered green laser pointers have been banned after a plane got blinded by one of them

I’ve seen the video evidence supporting this moment of real genius.

Link????

I remember that movie - Real Genius!

Sir have you have had any interactions with uhh _marijuana_

And by the look of him now Val Kilmer ate all the popcorn afterwards.

It’s because I’m a nerd.

It's not a yes or no question just a simple yes or no doesn't really tell you anything does it

the beam width by the time it hits the moon is around 4 miles wide...now do the math you'll see not many photons hit their laser ranging devices on the surface of the moon.

That's when you point the pointer at a friend and say they did it

ZockerTwins no?) does your skin 'absorb' light? So woould yoy be invisible while tanning?))) you just have different reflectivity and so does air )

S C No he is correct, the electrons in oxygens atoms can absorb photons and reach an excited state

Yeah and when those excited electrons fall back into their normal energy level, the release a new photon in a different direction, which will never end up in the space station.

The sun strength is about 1.36 kW/m2 right before hitting the atmosphere, and drops down to 1 kW/m2 after passing through the atmosphere, so assuming a similar absorption rate for the laser wavelength as the sun's total irradiance, only about 1/4 of the laser light would be absorbed.

Thanks for the answer :)