NASA Wants To Zap Space Junk With Lasers 148
Hugh Pickens writes "MIT Technology Review reports that various ideas have been floated for removing space junk, most of them hugely expensive, but now James Mason at NASA Ames Research Center has come up with the much cheaper option of zapping individual pieces of junk with a ground-based laser, to slow them down so that they eventually de-orbit. Mason estimates that a device to test the reversal of the Kessler syndrome could be put together for a million dollars, which would have to be shared by many space-faring nations, to avoid the inevitable legal issues that using such a device would raise. 'The scheme requires launching nothing into space — except photons (PDF) — and requires no on-orbit interaction — except photon pressure. It is thus less likely to create additional debris risk in comparison to most debris removal schemes,' writes Mason. 'Eventually the concept may lead to an operational international system for shielding satellites and large debris objects from a majority of collisions as well as providing high accuracy debris tracking data and propellant-less station keeping for smallsats.'"
Let's face it... (Score:2, Funny)
...everyone wants to zap space junk with lasers. NASA just happens to be in a better position than most to get the job done.
Shields at maximum! (Score:3, Funny)
Fire photon torpedoes!
James Mason Continues... (Score:3, Funny)
To avoid legal incidents we will be mounting the lasers in international waters. We will be subsidizing costs by using existing biological life-forms, mainly sharks, as the key base for the laser installation. Aiming the devices will also utilize the shark's keen sense of smell to identify and destroy decaying orbital installations.
Re:Insert shark joke here... (Score:1, Funny)
How big is your "junk" that it needs to be zapped while you're in space?
Re:Prior art (Score:4, Funny)