✨ Startup wants to vaporize space junk with ground lasers

Japanese startup EX-Fusion is planning to deploy a groundbreaking space debris removal method using lasers, and has already partnered with an Australian firm’s tracking observatory.

While satellites can maneuver to intercept larger targets, ground-based systems may offer a more affordable way to counter the threat of the growing number of smaller shreds that could endanger active spacecraft.

If EX-Fusion is successful, their technique promises to offer significant benefits over orbital junk clearing proposals. Learn more about this startup hopes to clear the road to space in today’s Must Read.

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EX-Fusion will install high-powered lasers at a dedicated Australian detection facility to target small debris under 4 inches wide, objects which have long proved challenging to track and destroy from Earth. By pulsing concentrated beams lagging behind targets to decelerate targets, the system will gradually drag fragments into decaying orbits to eventually burn up in the atmosphere. While technical hurdles around precision and power remain before realization, the group envisions around-the-clock automated removal to clear the most dangerous shards from their orbits.

The laser method avoids the shortcomings of existing ground concepts that mainly rely on weaponized thermal alternatives. However, skepticism persists around the ability of using rapid-fire pulses to deliver sufficient impulse to high-velocity, high-altitude targets. Learn how the space janitors on Earth might one day sweep the skies clean from below. 

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