Laser broom

Laser broom

A laser broom is a proposed ground-based laser beam-powered propulsion system whose purpose is to sweep space debris out of the path of the International Space Station.

It is designed to target debris between 1 and 10 cm in diameter. Even small-sized debris can cause considerable damage in extremely high-speed collisions. [cite web |url=http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q1697.html |title=Where can I get information about orbiting space junk? |publisher=Astronomy Cafe |work=Ask the Astronomer - Archive of Astronomy Questions and Answers |author=Dr Sten Odenwald |date=1997 |accessdate=2007-03-26] The space shuttle routinely shows evidence of (very) small impacts upon post-flight inspection. [cite web |url=http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/planetearth/space_junk_000901.html |title=Orbiting Junk Continues to Threaten International Space Station |publisher=space.com/ |accessdate=2008-02-03]

Proposed initial trials will use low power because of concerns about inadvertently contravening an international weapons treaty banning laser weapons in space. The laser broom is intended to be used at high enough power to punch through the atmosphere with enough remaining power to ablate material from the debris for several minutes. This would provide thrust to alter its orbit, dropping the perigee into the upper atmosphere, increasing drag so that the debris would eventually burn up on reentry.

One laser broom project is named Project Orion, not to be confused with the spacecraft propulsion project named Project Orion (nuclear propulsion) or NASA's Orion spacecraft (or CEV).

ee also

* Outer Space Treaty

References

Further reading

* "2000 Earth Orbital Debris - NASA Research on Satellite and Spacecraft Effects" by World Spaceflight News, CD-ROM: 862 pages ISBN 1-893472-28-0

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/884256.stm BBC News report on Laser broom]
* [http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s164735.htm Space Station gets high tech broom] ABC
* [http://www.spacedaily.com/news/debris-00a.html NASA Hopes Laser Broom Will Help Clean Up Space Debris] Agence France-Presse story via SpaceDaily
* [http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/planetearth/space_junk_000901.html Orbiting Junk Continues to Threaten International Space Station] Space.com
* [http://www.newscientist.com/channel/space/space-shuttle/mg16722521.200 Shuttle to test space junk broom] New Scientist
* [http://www.seds.org/spaceviews/9707/articles.html SpaceViews July 1997: Articles] [http://www.seds.org/spaceviews/9707/articles.html#1 ORION: A Solution to the Orbital Debris Problem] by Claude Phipps


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