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ISS Could Be Fitted With Lasers To Shoot Down Space Junk
An anonymous reader writes Japan's Riken research institute has suggested a new idea for dealing with space junk. They say a fiber optic laser mounted onto the International Space Station could blast debris out of the sky. From the article: "To combat the increasingly dense layer of dead satellites and miscellaneous space debris that are enshrouding our planet, no idea — nets, lassos, even ballistic gas clouds — seems too far-fetched to avoid. Now, an international team of researchers led by Japan's Riken research institute has put forward what may be the most ambitious plan to date. They propose blasting an estimated 3,000 tons of space junk out of orbit with a fiber optic laser mounted on the International Space Station."
Does poking holes space junk make it disappear or make more of it?
And the answer is...
None! We're not even talking enough laser to blind someone at that range, much less vaporize something/someone....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
My guess is that the power of the ISS laser, if aimed at the ground, would cause less damage than aiming a laser pointer at the ground. For all of the sci-fi programs showing space-based lasers decimating cities, our atmosphere is very good at diffusing light and the ISS's laser isn't going to have the power needed to overcome this.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
My understanding (as very limited as it is), is that you'd need to ablate enough material off the object to knock it out of orbit and to fall to earth.
However do you even need to hit it that hard? Can you just put enough laser energy on to it to perturb it out of orbit without ablating/vaporizing material? More massive objects would of course require more power applied.
Planetes was a cool anime until near the end when the characters all when off the damn rails.
Anyhow, the headline and description are terrible. The plan is not "blasting" debris out of space. They're using the lasers to degrade the orbit. The atmosphere would then destroy the debris. Of course, using lasers to "burn", "propel", or "push" the debris out of orbit doesn't sound nearly as sexy as "blasting" it. So, for everyone talking about how "blasting" will simply create more debris, it's not an issue.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
How does heat affect the orbit?
You vaporize one side of the object, and the expanding gases provide some thrust.