fairfolio
Saved Projects

Lunar Communication: Determining Laser Power Needed

CSEF · 2004 Electricity & Electronics

Evie Pless · La Entrada Middle School, Menlo Park

Overview

Objectives/Goals 1. To build a laser communicator that transmits a sound signal using a laser beam. 2. To test how far the laser communicator can operate. 3. To calculate the laser power needed for this device to communicate to the moon. Methods/Materials First, I developed and built a simple laser communicator. Using research and my dad's advice I adapted the apparatus to use pulse width modulation. Next, I was able to test the apparatus over increasing distances up to a half mile. In order to estimate how far my device could communicate, I created a simulation based on these distance tests. Lastly, I made some reasonable assumptions, researched a few aspects of lunar communication, and calculated the laser power that would be needed to reach the moon. Results I was able to build a laser communicator that operated by means of pulse width modulation. According to my testing and simulation the device can transmit audio signals at least one mile. Calculations show that the laser would have to be 10,000 times more powerful for my current device to communicate to the moon. Conclusions/Discussion Communication by means of pulse width modulation in lasers is very reasonable. Even with my lower quality equipment I would only need a 30 watt laser to communicate to the moon. Although radio is the established means of communication in space, laser communication could be used effectively.

Summary statement

I developed and built a laser communicator, experimented with how far it worked, and calculated the laser power needed for lunar communication.

Help received

My dad taught me about circuits and engineering. He also talked to me about my project and offered advice. Both of my parents helped edit my written work.

Awards (1)

  • Category Award

Competition history

  • CSEF 2004 Electricity & Electronics · Entry J0722

Resources

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google