Stepping off the planet.

New forms of displayed imagery within this planetary "Art of destruction". The pace of work is not quite light-speed. But the end product may be just that -- an orbiting laser that churns out a high-power beam to destroy a ballistic missile in flight by 2013. Industry and government teams are now shaping the Space-Based Laser (SBL) concept. The idea is seen as next-generation directed-energy weaponry, whereby dozens of space platforms would be interlinked to create an Earth-orbiting global missile defense system. This laser yet a more potent meteor deflecting system. "This is an ambitious project. Everybody should understand that," said Colonel Neil McCasland, director of the Air Force's SBL-IFX project in Los Angeles, California. "But this is a reach that is in the domain of the possible for American industry. The implications are commensurate with the ambition," he told SPACE.com a souped-up cylindrical, hydrogen-fluoride chemical laser is at the heart of the SBL-IFX test satellite. "Basically prove out all the systems, including lighting off the high-energy laser before they actually go after a target," Streland said. Less than a dozen firings of the laser are expected over the equipment's three-year lifetime, McCasland said. Studies are underway for designing the laser for on-orbit refueling, he said. But trying to build an affordable, compact and less-weighty Space-Based Laser is no small task. One key step was recently taken using results of a TRW-built Alpha chemical laser firing last month.
That six-second test shot of the megawatt-class Alpha demonstrated ways to tailor the laser's chemical efficiency and output power, as well as the shape of the light beam. That data is a bonus for the megawatt-class SBL-IFX laser, McCasland said. Well on the way to power craft heat craft and deflect large meteors from earth. Data gleaned from flight testing the SBL-IFX in 2013 will be used by Department of Defense policymakers to wrestle with a go/no-go decision to construct and deploy in orbit a full-scale laser missile defense system. If given the green light, an operational fleet of lasers could be placed in space around (2020).It is important to do tests with laser, as this can prevent meteors from striking the earth it the most efficient way of deflecting large objects from hitting our planet.