Australia hatches plan to zap space junk with lasers

[Nipuna]

THERE is a clean-up going on down under. Australia plans to track shards of space junk and blast them with lasers to prevent the kind of space crash depicted in the movie Gravity.

Earth is surrounded by a diffuse cloud of space debris, ranging from lost screws to parts of old rockets. Even a tiny shard could damage satellites or pose a danger to astronauts on the International Space Station. And when two pieces of junk collide at high speeds, they break up into smaller pieces, which are tougher to track.

With a small population spread across a wide area, Australia relies heavily on satellites to deliver services. So later this year, a new centre, funded by A$20 million from the Australian government, will begin to track tiny pieces of debris and try to predict their future trajectories. The centre will operate from the Mount Stromolo Observatory in Canberra.

The ultimate aim is to knock shards of space debris out of their orbits using lasers based on Earth. The shards will then sink and burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

This article appeared in print under the headline "Space junk lasers"