I read an article a couple of weeks back about the increase in planes being lasered when coming into land.

How powerful a laser would I need to laser the spacestation?

I’ve got a 3.5W one which is rated at 72km – but that’s in atmosphere, so straight up should have no problem hitting something in orbit. Depends on what you want to do to the space station of course 😀

Depends on what you want to do to the space station of course

Draw attention to it during a presentation.

We’ve got some kit on a roof somewhere that was part of the OPALS development for the ISS- it can track and light up a satellite with an infrared laser, I can’t recall offhand how high and how small it can target. It couldn’t burn one though, it’s a communications laser so just a couple of watts. IIRC there’s similiar kit that does the same for the moon, though it’s a bit easier to hit the moon I reckon.

Did Ministry of Sound not project their logo onto the moon with a laser for publicity

Just a guess…. you’ll be really really unpopular if you do it.

I am not sure how much I can emphasis enough how really, really, really, unpopular that person would become.

Bit like farting in confined spaces?

..but with a higher chance of prolonged incarceration as a conciquence.

Did Ministry of Sound not project their logo onto the moon with a laser for publicity

Urban legend.

I love an excuse to link to XKCD:
https://what-if.xkcd.com/13/

Enjoyed that link, cheers for that

If you want to project a laser into space, there are mirrors on the moon you can bounce lasers off.

though it’s a bit easier to hit the moon I reckon.

The retroreflector is pretty small, though – I think it took several thousand shots to get a return.

It boggles me that we can hit anything at that sort of distance.
The moon is 370,300 km away and the reflector isn’t that big so you’d need a pretty steady hand!
What’s half a degree of wobble at that range?

Of course ISS is a lot closer but it’s moving pretty fast (17,100mph!)

But what if they were killer sharks with firkin lasers for eyes 😉

How about a cat with a laser beam on its head

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwB8nbI4TuM[/video]

If the shark was on a treadmill…..