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 one and ten centimeters in diameter. Even small-sized debris can cause considerable damage in extremely high-speed collisions.^[1] The Space Shuttle routinely shows evidence of "tiny" impacts upon post-flight inspection.^[2]

Proposed initial trials will use low power because of concerns about inadvertently contravening the Outer Space Treaty,^{[citation needed]} which bans 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 or NASA's Orion spacecraft (or CEV).

See 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

• BBC News report on Laser broom
• Space Station gets high tech broom ABC
• NASA Hopes Laser Broom Will Help Clean Up Space Debris Agence France-Presse story via SpaceDaily
• Orbiting Junk Continues to Threaten International Space Station Space.com
• Shuttle to test space junk broom New Scientist
• SpaceViews July 1997: Articles ORION: A Solution to the Orbital Debris Problem by Claude Phipps