Australian Company Develops Junk-Tracking Space Laser

24 July 2010

This handout illustration image created by Australia's Electro Optic Systems (EOS) aerospace company shows a view of the Earth from geostationary height depicting swarms of space debris in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), 20 Jul 2010

An estimated 500,000 pieces of debris litter the Earth's orbit as a result of man's exploration of space. Some satellites have been hit by fast-moving pieces of junk.

The remains of old rockets can be the size of a bus, while other fragments are simply tiny flecks of paint.

An Australian company, Electro Optic Systems, has received a $3.5 million government grant to develop the world's first automated, high-precision, laser tracking technology. It would replace existing radar networks that currently monitor that part of space.

The goal is to track small objects with great accuracy.

Dr. Craig Smith, the chief executive of Electro Optic Systems, says laser beams fired from the ground could protect astronauts and satellites by targeting space junk that travels at potentially devastating speeds.

"They are all hurtling around in space at 36,000 kilometers 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," noted Smith. "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."