The laser will protect the ISS from space debris
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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An international space station can install a special laser device that will destroy space debris, accumulating in huge amounts in a near-earth orbit.
To identify debris in space, specialists plan to use a telescope, which was originally designed to detect cosmic rays from a space station. Experts note that the destruction of foreign particles that threaten the integrity and normal operation of the orbital station, can become one of the most effective ways to protect today.
For observations of space waste, it was decided to use the space observatory EUSO. This tool is planned to be installed at the Japanese orbital station in two years. The laser gun, which in theory should destroy the space remains, is still under development.
Specialists noted that the gun will be equipped with ultraviolet lasers, which will reproduce about 10 thousand pulses per second. This power will allow the laser to operate at a distance of up to 100 km and heat the garbage residues. After the gun "shoots", debris particles will fly to the side of the earth, where they will be burned in the atmosphere.
To test the laser device in action, scientists intend to place on the international space station a low-power copy of the gun. According to preliminary data, about 3 thousand tons of garbage fly aimlessly in near-earth orbit, these are various spent satellites, elements from missiles or installation blocks, remnants of spacecraft after collisions, etc.
All this garbage is flying in our orbit at a speed of more than 30 thousand kilometers per hour and is capable of damaging the cladding of operating spacecraft. Most of the space objects can withstand impacts with only small debris (not more than 1 cm), with impacts of larger particles, the danger of damage increases, with the larger the particle, the more damage it will cause. The maximum danger is represented by garbage residues from 1 to 10 cm in size, as they are rather difficult to detect.
According to the estimations of the agency for the exploration of outer space (NASA), only over the last year more than 100 tons of space debris fell on our land.
It should be noted that over the past several decades, huge unnecessary remains have been formed in outer space near the earth, in most cases they are abandoned or damaged satellites, some of which regularly fall to the ground.
Recently, NASA specialists completed the counting of objects that collapsed on our land last year. If the calculation has been carried out correctly, more than 100 tons of various objects have returned back from the space orbit. Also, experts have provided the most likely explanation as to why the garbage remains begin to fall to the ground. According to experts, last year due to solar activity the boundary of the earth's atmosphere increased, which contributed to the attraction of more objects from near-earth orbit.