# Can we start ground fires with space lasers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2021, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-start-ground-fires-with-space-lasers/932132 "2021-02-03T13:12:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 87
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-start-ground-fires-with-space-lasers/932132/87 "2021-02-15T23:11:11Z")
I worked at NASA GSFC for a summer. I was wandering around the hallways one day, and came across an article from an ophthalmology magazine that had been taped to a door. It told the story of a guy who caught a reflected laser beam in the eye - he heard a “pop,” and lost vision in a portion of his visual field. They had photos of the damage to the eye, and a description of his prognosis (vision gone in that area forever). At the bottom of the article, someone had written: _“The laser in this room 10,000 times more powerful than the one in the article - wear your safety goggles!"_ --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-start-ground-fires-with-space-lasers/932132)._