To reduce the growing amount of space junk that threatens to knock out satellites with a "cascade of collisions," an Australian team is working on a project to zap orbital debris with lasers from Earth, Reuters reported.
Likely to be working in the next 10 years, the project is very realistic, Matthew Colless, director of Australian National University's Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, told Reuters.
"It's important that it's possible on that scale because there's so much space junk up there," he said. "We're perhaps only a couple of decades away from a catastrophic cascade of collisions ... that takes out all the satellites in low orbit."
From tiny screws and bolts to large parts of rockets, scientists believe there are more than 300,000 pieces of debris in space that is mostly moving in low orbits around Earth at tremendous speed.
To track and map space junk with a telescope equipped with an infra-red laser at Mount Stromlo Observatory, Australia now has a contract with NASA.
Importing techniques from astronomy used to remove the blurring of the atmosphere, $20 million from the Australian government and $40 million in private investment will help the team set up as the Cooperative Research Center (RSC) to develop better lasers to track tiny pieces of debris.
To illuminate and zap pieces of junk so they burn up harmlessly as they fall through the upper atmosphere, the ultimate aim is to increase the power of the lasers, Reuters reported.
"There's no risk of missing and hitting a working satellite," Colless said. "We can target them precisely. We really don't miss."
Colless said he imagines an eventual need for a global network of stations set up under international auspices but, right now, the CRC is doing the research to make it possible, Reuters reported.
The CRC is made up of universities, space agencies and companies including Lockheed Martin, Optus and EOS Space System Australia.
