Space Debris Remediation Using Space-Based Lasers

Centimetre and sub-centimetre debris fragments present a significant threat to many operational satellites in Earth orbit. When debris can be tracked, the preferred approach is collision avoidance to slightly alter the orbit of the at-risk satellite, resulting in an along-track displacement which compounds over several orbits. Although numerous strategies for active debris removal and remediation have been proposed, most such methods involve rendezvous maneuvers with targeted pieces of debris prior to some mechanical interaction. While such approaches are appropriate for removing larger objects which are potential sources of further debris, they are unsuitable for application to fragments which are too small to be accurately tracked from Earth and with which a rendezvous would be challenging.