Lasers Offer Satellites Better Ways to Communicate

What happens to the wavefront of a beam of coherent light as it is propagated through the atmosphere? The question has become one of vital interest to space scientists, and is answerable now that we can study, for the first time, light sent out into space by lasers, as well as that originating from an external source such as a star. The answer will affect the development of optical space‐communication systems (destined to supplement present microwave telemetry channels) and precision laser tracking for satellite‐orbit determination, geodesy and lunar‐motion studies.