Cleaning up space; China’s new plan to create a “Space broom”

February 16, 2018

China has developed a new plan to address the on-going issue of space debris with a laser! The idea is to create a satellite with an attached laser powerful enough to heat up large particles of space debris. The changing of the object’s mass would ideally change it’s orbit and burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere acting as a “broom”.

The idea is still in the beginning phases and require a lot of heavy testing to determine its efficacy. Other worries include the legalities of the debris (being the property of their originating satellites) as well as on going suspicions of its use as “weapon-like technology”.