But anyone who has gripped a handheld laser pointer to lead a presentation or to tease a cat knows that lower-energy versions of lasers are quite common today. The focused light of lasers can be used for microscopy, to provide targets for weapons, to perform certain types of delicate surgery or to create spectacular visual displays at rock concerts.  

And lasers are also frequently used in space — not as weapons, but to help scientists conduct highly precise measurements and observations, a group of NASA engineers and designers explained in a panel on June 16 here at Future Con.

If you've ever marveled at the highly detailed Martian topography in the geobrowser Google Mars, you have lasers to thank, said Luis Ramos-Izquierdo, an optical systems engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.  

For four-and-a-half years, the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) used lasers to collect data on Mars' surface elevation, which was used to generate the most detailed global topographic map of any planet in our solar system, according to NASA.