  Direct laser excitation of the lowest known nuclear excited state in
$^{229}$Th has been a longstanding objective. It is generally assumed that
reaching this goal would require a considerably reduced uncertainty of the
isomer's excitation energy compared to the presently adopted value of $(7.8\pm
0.5)$ eV. Here we present a direct laser excitation scheme for
$^{229\text{m}}$Th, which circumvents this requirement. The proposed excitation
scheme makes use of already existing laser technology and therefore paves the
way for nuclear laser spectroscopy. In this concept, the recently
experimentally observed internal-conversion decay channel of the isomeric state
is used for probing the isomeric population. A signal-to-background ratio of
better than $10^4$ and a total measurement time of less than three days for
laser scanning appear to be achievable.
