Researchers from the Australian National University have been planning to fire lasers from Mt Stromlo Observatory near Canberra, that can track space debris, and potentially perturb its orbit or even destroy it.
“We need to find solutions to control space pollution, and if possible, clean up space,” Associate Professor Celine d’Orgeville said.
“We use powerful lasers that we propagate from ground-based telescopes. This laser is pointing at the debris and, using the light from the laser reflecting back to the telescope, we know where the debris is in space.
“We can calculate its position, we can predict where it’s going to be, and we can predict collisions.”
To do a good job, the team has developed a “laser guide star” system and uses “adaptive optics”, which can focus the laser and get around any atmospheric disturbance.
“Photon pressure” would use the power of the laser to push the debris around, just enough to avoid a predicted collision.
“We’re aiming to get rid of all the sort of little pieces that are … still harmful to other debris and functional satellites up there,” fellow researcher Dr Doris Grosse said.
The team has promised to be careful with aeroplanes, with a demonstration planned for 2019.
Should space junk be picked up and brought back to Earth?
The European Space Agency has looked into missions to recover space junk, including the possibility of nets to catch wayward objects.
But Dr Gorman said humanity was not quite there yet.
“The big problem is that it costs so much to put things into orbit. You have to carry all of the fuel. It’s very costly to manoeuvre, so we don’t have the capacity to take things out of orbit.”
“It’s your heritage up there as well, and I think we need to incorporate an assessment of heritage value into any scheme to remove orbital debris,” Dr Gorman said.
Leaders from the world’s space agencies and commercial companies will have a chance to discuss the issue in depth at a session at the International Astronautical Congress held in Adelaide.