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Australian military defence contractor develops laser powerful enough to take out space junk

HERA the Stars

HERA the Stars

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This is just too cool not to share, the idea is to build a bigger laser capable of moving space junk around and not to break up the space junk into smaller pieces that will make it harder to track.

I'd have to wonder about other uses for the laser such as shooting down North Korean ICBM's

Australian military defence contractor Electro Optic Systems has developed a laser capable of pushing space debris in orbit around so collisions can be avoided.

The company, under its EOS Space Systems arm based in Mt Stromlo near Canberra, will use lasers to track space junk and then another higher powered laser to avoid impacts by nudging the debris.

Professor Craig Smith, from EOS Space Systems, said researchers had developed a photon pressure laser that was 'able to nudge space debris objects around, change their orbits.'



Read more: Australian scientists plan to use lasers to shoot space junk | Daily Mail Online
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Australian scientists plan to use lasers to shoot space junk | Daily Mail Online

Earth's junkyard

4A65C98600000578-5527033-image-a-2_1521635119275.jpg
 
Velly interesting.... thanks.


Lasers were sci-fi when I was a teenager. Lasers that could do more than make a dot on the wall were still viewed with skepticism most of my life.
 
My father was one of the first people to develop thermal X-ray lasers and his team demonstrated the effect of radiation pressure on objects 3000 miles above the Earth's surface back in 1983.

It's sitting somewhere in a pile of stuff in my garage, but I actually have a piece of hardware from one of the initial tests and you can see the markings on it where it was hit by the laser.

Here's the proof of concept thermal X-ray laser he developed in testing.

X-raylaser1.jpg

He also pioneered nuclear hardening for electronics.
 
HERA the Stars said:
I'd have to wonder about other uses for the laser such as shooting down North Korean ICBM's
Click to expand...

The biggest problem in training a radiation pressure emitter on an incoming missile is simply the fact that it is difficult to keep it on target from that far away. It boils down to optics, only since we're talking about photon radiation as pressure, it's more than simple visible light optics.

In theory, if you're able to maintain a circle of focus small enough to concentrate the radiation, you should be able to damage the components of the missle but at such great distances you wind up with a "circle of confusion" which is an optical term that describes an optical spot caused by a cone of light rays from a lens not coming to a perfect focus when imaging a point source.

Even a laser beam's dot will enlarge a fair bit at such distances, and one encounters significant distortion from atmospherics, however there is still sufficient radiation pressure to alter the trajectory or orbit of such objects.

The concept does indeed work at relatively short distances, such as that of a few miles however.
The Navy has a radiation pressure type laser gun which can destroy boats a couple of miles away.



Perhaps if they can get a counter missile aloft quick enough to attain a close enough striking distance, it might be possible for an anti-ballistic missile to carry a laser that could destroy an incoming ICBM. I am sure that they're working on the idea.

My father's thermal X-ray laser was able to destroy objects 3000 miles above the Earth, but they were in orbit, they were not on a missile trajectory. I suppose it was easier to track and maintain focus on orbital objects than it would be on an incoming missile.
 
Checkerboard Strangler said:
The biggest problem in training a radiation pressure emitter on an incoming missile is simply the fact that it is difficult to keep it on target from that far away. It boils down to optics, only since we're talking about photon radiation as pressure, it's more than simple visible light optics.

In theory, if you're able to maintain a circle of focus small enough to concentrate the radiation, you should be able to damage the components of the missle but at such great distances you wind up with a "circle of confusion" which is an optical term that describes an optical spot caused by a cone of light rays from a lens not coming to a perfect focus when imaging a point source.

Even a laser beam's dot will enlarge a fair bit at such distances, and one encounters significant distortion from atmospherics, however there is still sufficient radiation pressure to alter the trajectory or orbit of such objects.

The concept does indeed work at relatively short distances, such as that of a few miles however.
The Navy has a radiation pressure type laser gun which can destroy boats a couple of miles away.



Perhaps if they can get a counter missile aloft quick enough to attain a close enough striking distance, it might be possible for an anti-ballistic missile to carry a laser that could destroy an incoming ICBM. I am sure that they're working on the idea.

My father's thermal X-ray laser was able to destroy objects 3000 miles above the Earth, but they were in orbit, they were not on a missile trajectory. I suppose it was easier to track and maintain focus on orbital objects than it would be on an incoming missile.
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That's interesting CS personally I think a whole range of issues needs to be taken into account if one were to develop a defensive weapon to intercept. Factors such as radiation pressure (like you describe), wind speeds and direction, position where on earth it's launched from, earth's rotation even probably differences in air temperature from launch to impact point. This means you would need a computer fast enough to first do the math for trajectory prediction and then factor in all these other issues, for the entire projected route the ICBM would travel, as well as what I consider the biggest problem, and that is the fantastical speeds these missiles travel. Add to that manoeuvrability and capability to evade radar systems and it's impossible to intercept with current technology.

The first step would be to mathematically solve the above and at least a hundred different scenarios in a matter of one minute or less, this would mean you would have to be able to calculate the exact spot that missile will be within however long it will take you to launch an intercept, I think laser is the only solution unless you (as someone else said somewhere) want to try and hit a bullet with a bullet.

I do however believe it's within reach with quantum computers in the near future.
 
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