
Holger Schlueter - Laserman!
Holger first called me about 2 weeks after the 2007 Space Elevator games.
At the time, I was deliberating on how to take the games forward. After the games, I asked the teams where they’d like to go next, and how far they think they can beam to, and the answer I got was “1 km”. This was a 10-fold increase in the beaming range, and I was not sure if it wasn’t too much.
Holger, as it turned out, just saw the video of USST’s power beaming performance in 2007, and got very interested in the Space Elevator concept. He called in to discuss a technical detail of the Space Elevator, and only introduced himself by name. As the conversation wore on, he dropped in that he was in a position to help with laser fire-power, so while still on the phone, I Googled his name (not an easy feat for a pathological uni-tasker such as myself) and realized I’m speaking with the VP lasers of TRUMPF – a very large industrial laser company, probably the biggest one.
Ok then – so I asked him if TRUMPF can support a 1-km power beaming challenge, and Holger said something along the lines of “you’re thinking about 1 km? you’re absolutely nuts! Of course we can do it!”
Holger should know – he has done some pretty impossible things at TRUMPF. I got a chance to see the TRUMPF laser factory near Hartford, CT. Talk about Sci-Fi coming to life… Many amazing machines in this world do not give a clue as to just how amazing they are. Computers come to mind – they don’t look very powerful. Neither do jet engines hanging off of jetliners. But high-power lasers are a different matter. Whether we’re talking CO2 lasers or solid-state disk lasers, one peek at the inner-workings just screams at you “Advanced Align Technology from the Future”. So yeah, Holger’s playground.
In my engineering background, optics is a gaping hole. A shame really – I missed out on a lot.
Anyway, Holger then introduced Dave Marcotte, TRUMPF operation’s man, and we were on our way!
Categorically speaking, without Holger and TRUMPF’s support, the games would not have made it beyond the 100 m range.
Holger is definite Crazy Eddie material.






For the obvious reasons, I invariably get too busy to blog exactly when things get interesting...