According to scientists, the International Space Station may one day be fitted with a laser cannon capable of destroying potentially harmful space debris. Although most spacecrafts can take impacts from particles smaller than one centimeter, their shielding is nowadays inadequate. Ground-based radar systems and computer simulations show that there are over 700,000 particles larger than one centimeter in Earth orbit. These particles can be anything from pieces of rocket bodies to old, broken satellites, to tiny pieces of wrecked spacecraft. Small pieces of space junk, ranging from 1cm to 10 cm in size, are perhaps the worst since they are very hard to spot and dodge. Some of this debris can travel as quickly as 22,370 mph. It’s obviously not just the Space Station that gets attacked by space debris. Satellites are extremely vulnerable to collisions, even those with tiny particles like screws. The problem is only getting worse, because we are launching more and more spacecraft and satellites into orbit. It’s quite clear that a solution is needed, and if that solution involves scanning for stuff and blasting it with a laser, things get interesting fast.
Scientists suggest a laser cannon mounted on a satellite in the future.
For example, researchers suggest a concept involving the laser space debris cannon: a satellite with a laser cannon on it. This hypothetical satellite would be able to clean up a big portion of the most hazardous space trash in orbit. The laser proposed is called a CAN (Coherent Amplification Network) laser, and it consists of many smaller lasers put together to make one powerful beam. The beam would be able to fire a whopping 10,000 laser pulses per second, each pulse only lasting a tenth of a billionth of a second. Its range would be around 60 miles.
As for how an awesome long-range laser cannon-wielding satellite would find the debris, scientists believe that the EUSO (Extreme Universe Space Observatory) can help. Even though the EUSO was originally designed for the detection of UV light emitted by cosmic rays, it could also be used for this quite crucial purpose. The EUSO is set to be installed on Japan’s module in ISS in 2017.
For more ISS laser cannon images, please see gallery here.
ISS Could Get Laser Cannon to Fight Space Debris
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