But the photons made it through the atmosphere in the first place to be collected by the reflectors. Is there just not enough energy left to make it back out before cooling off?
It’s not even coherent when the sun emits it. For one, it consists of a large range of wavelengths…
And I doubt there’s a way to make light coherent at that order of magnitude.
Keep in mind that atmospheric interference would likely scatter the light enough to be ineffective
So you’re saying we should weaponize the James Webb space telescope instead? :D
But the photons made it through the atmosphere in the first place to be collected by the reflectors. Is there just not enough energy left to make it back out before cooling off?
That’s the assumption, yes. But if the beams are coherent (like a laser) atmospheric interference would be a lot smaller.
The real question is whether the light would be coherent, which I lean towards no on.
It’s not even coherent when the sun emits it. For one, it consists of a large range of wavelengths… And I doubt there’s a way to make light coherent at that order of magnitude.