Principles of designing adaptive relay systems for stratospheric power transmission

Problems of designing laser power transmission systems in a turbulent atmosphere using relay mirrors mounted on a stratospheric airship are analyzed. It is shown that such a system can be designed using a high-power ground-based ytterbium fiber laser, relay mirrors for transmitting highpower laser radiation, and an adaptive optical system for correcting the phase distortions of laser beams due to atmospheric turbulence. A model of a laser power transmission system was designed and tested under laboratory conditions; the tests confirmed the possibility of correcting atmospheric-turbulence distortions during guiding and high-accuracy stabilization of laser beams.