Using Lasers to clear the sky of Space Debris and avoid collisions with Space Debris

Credit: ESA

Space debris is basically any piece of machinery or debris left in space, it can be dead satellites that were left in orbit at the end of their mission, and space debris can also range to small bits of debris, like paint flecks or metal shavings or plastics, which can be very very small. Well, space junk currently poses not that big of a risk for space exploration missions and to the active satellites as satellites have to move out of the way of all the incoming space junk so they don't get hit. But still, they can be a major threat to the $700 billion of space infrastructure delivering vital services across the globe.

There is an estimate of about 3000 dead satellites in space, 2000 active satellites, 34000 pieces of space junk larger than 10cm, and 128 million pieces of space junk larger than 1mm. 

So where does the problem begin? Well as satellites are launched regularly and also with future plans of SpaceX with the Starlink project, there can be up to 50000 satellites in space in the future which will posses danger as the collisions will be more frequent as there will just be so many satellites in space. Well, not just that sending satellites to outer space will also be a problem. 

USING LASERS TO DETECT SPACE DEBRIS

Now researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) have harnessed a technique that helps telescopes see objects in the night sky more clearly to fight against dangerous space debris. The optics that focus and direct the guide star laser have been developed by the ANU researchers with ElectroOptic Systems (EOS), RMIT University, Japan, and the USA as part of the Space Environment Research Centre (SERC). EOS will be commercializing the guide star laser technology, which could also be incorporated in tool kits to enable high bandwidth ground to space satellite communications. 

Credit: ANU

The laser beams are used for tracking space junk using infrared technology, the guide star laser mounted on a telescope propagates a visible orange beam into the night sky to create an artificial star that can be used to accurately measure light distortion between Earth and space. This guiding orange light enables adaptive optics to sharpen images of space debris, it can also guide a second, more powerful infrared laser through the atmosphere to track space debris or even move them out of orbit to avoid collisions with other debris and eventually burn up in the atmosphere. 

Without adaptive optics, a telescope sees an object in space like a blob of light because the atmosphere distorts the light travelling between the Earth and those objects. And with adaptive optics, an object in space and their images looks much sharper.

The ANU researchers will work with EOS to test new technologies and apply them to a range of other applications including laser communication between Earth and Space. 

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