If a team of astronomers has its way, the International Space Station will be outfitted with a spiffy laser-wielding telescope. No, no, hold on—it’s not to kill aliens or rebel civilizations. It’s to clean up a huge mess.
If anything rivals the human drive for exploration, it is the apparent need to leave a spectacular plume of trash in our wake. In space, the problem is becoming acute. Decades of discarded satellites and unchecked collisions have left some 3,000 tons of debris in orbit. That’s roughly 15 blue whales, 600 elephants, or 1,500 cars.
Mankind’s slovenly ways threaten our continued use of space-based satellites, which have become a core component of modern technological infrastructure. You’ve probably used those satellites dozens of ways so far today. Have you sent a text? Watched TV? Used GPS? Checked the weather? If you’d like to keep doing these things, astronomers will soon need to find a way of tidying up low Earth orbit. In that region, between 100 and 1,250 miles above the planet, mere flecks of paint (of which there are many) travel with sufficient force to sever electrical wires, dent spacecraft, and kill astronauts.
Lasers could be the saviors in operation Orbital Clean House. A team of astronomers at Japan’s RIKEN, a network of basic-research laboratories, have proposed adding debris-zapping capabilities to a telescope they are already developing for the ISS. They plan to start on a small scale, with a laser no more powerful than the pointer you use to play with your cat. In time, the power could be increased to become a proper laser cannon. (Yes, dear reader, a laser cannon.)
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