Laser system tracks growing threat of space junk

Laser system tracks growing threat of space junk

Australian researchers say they have developed a laser tracking system that will stop chunks of space debris from colliding with spacecraft and satellites in the earth's orbit.

Electro Optic Systems, an aerospace company based in Canberra, has received a $3.5 million grant from the Australian government to develop the world's first automated, high-precision, laser tracking technology, Voice of America reported on its website Saturday. It would replace existing radar networks that currently monitor debris floating in space.

An estimated 500,000 pieces of debris litter the Earth's orbit as a result of space exploration. The space junk ranges from old rocket parts the size of a bus to paint chips the size of a finger nail. Another 200,000 pieces of junk measuring less than a centimetre across — and thus not a serious threat or even possible to track — add to the space junk pile.

Most of the debris is in LEO — low earth orbit — within 2,000 km of the earth's surface.

Some satellites have been hit by pieces of man-made space junk, some hurtling at speeds over 35,000 km/h. Several space shuttle missions have also been endangered by the fast-moving veil of debris.

Dr. Craig Smith, CEO of Electro Optic Systems, said the goal of the new system is to track small objects with great accuracy, Voice of America reported.

"They are all hurtling around in space at 36,000 kilometres per hour and so even a 1mm piece of space junk can destroy or damage a satellite because it all comes from either dead satellites, satellites which have broken up, satellites which had fuel left in them and exploded," Smith told VOA. "It is really pollution from our own use of space. Over the last 50 years we have been a bit careless, just as we have been careless with our oceans and rivers over centuries and polluted them. Now we have done it to space as well and created our own problem because all this stuff is man-made."

The laser tracking system would work by giving spacecraft and satellites, which are able to be maneuvered, time to move out of the way of an incoming chunk of debris.

The project is one aspect of aerospace work by a larger international consortium, VOA said. Other members of the consortium include the Australian National University and scientific institutions in Germany and the United States. The tracking system can work from one laser base in Australia but the group's ultimate aim is to build a series of laser tracking stations around the world to provide an interconnecting defensive shield for activity in space.