Optical Reform

There was one aspect about SDI that I was enthusiastic about, it would
require putting a lot of payloads into LEO and the developement of new
launch vehicles that could then be used for opening the frontier to
peacefull ends.
Lasers in the visible spectrum are only about two percent efficient.
CO2 and free electron lasers are about 30% efficient but would have to
be very concentrated to create a plasma at the surface of a target.
The following idea is more for amusement than a practical system.
Parabolic mirrors could be made on the moon by spinning a melt in
segments that could then be launched from a linear accelerator. For a
ten micron wavelength a 30 m mirror could beam to another of the same
size over the distance between geosycronous to LEO.
A 'bugeye' array of parabolic mirrors would be assembled 22000 miles
up. A recieving mirror would reconstitute the laser beam through a
secondary where it would then be bounced to a 'flying secondary' which
would spread it out over a 150 m 'lance' primary.
The focus would move across a space hundreds of miles away. Tilting
the primary would raster successive lines. If an offensive missle
launch were detected the primary would be directed toward it. A
reflection would give the precise position, blind targeting, like
sweeping with a white cane.
Ten or so of the bugeye mirrors would be directed to the recieving
mirror and a succession of pulses would be sent so that the flying
secondary puts each pulse on the same target area. The first pulses
would create a plasma which would absorb the later pulses, creating a
'surface detonation'.
Of all the SDI proposals this one would probably require the most
extensive developement of space manufacture, which was the idea.