It seems to me that the greatest invention of my father is the one he will never get credit for. [I mean the infrared telescope and super sharp "copymate machine" using x rays at least he got credit for. [The first was owned by the USA  Army. The second he had a patent for. But laser communication seems to me to be the greatest thing of all [that he made at TRW. ]  This is fantastic because it is something like a telephone. There is a current, and superimposed on that current you talk and that makes a signal that can be heard above that current. Or maybe better said- it is like an ocean wave that is large, but has small ripples on top of it. That is the same thing as laser communication. The signal you want to send is superimposed on the laser. This makes a band width that is vastly larger than with radio signals. [And obviously can be sent on much longer distances without worrying about the problem of radio waves that disperse.]

[This laser communication was done the height of the Cold War so that the Russians could not eavesdrop on American communications between satellites. But TRW went under because of the two moles that were discovered there that were selling USA technology to the USSR. So TRW lost all their contracts, and their newest projects were sold to other aerospace companies. So my dad's name [Philip Rosten] was lost in that mix up. But he was in fact the one who made that system.