As serious as the whole space junk problem is, this Japanese startup has come up with a very fun way of dealing with it!
Space Invaders, the 1978 shoot ’em up arcade video game developed and released by Taito in Japan, went on to become the highest-grossing video game of all time. The game’s template was simple: a fixed shooter would use a laser cannon to fire at aliens overhead.
It ushered in the golden age of arcade video games and served as inspiration for countless other games, but why are we talking about it here? Turns out, the premise of this insanely popular game can help us solve some real time problems the human race faces today.
While we have no alien invasions that we need to worry about as of now thankfully, we are struggling to deal with the glaring problem of space junk — fragments of defunct human-made objects like old satellites and spent rocket stages still orbiting Earth. And EX-Fusion, an Osaka-based startup, is planning to create a ground-based laser system to shoot at these objects.
Unlike current weapon-grade and fibre lasers used to cut and weld metal or destroy drones, EX-Fusion’s new technology will use diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) lasers. This project’s goal is to target fast-moving space debris from the opposite direction of where it’s heading in hopes of slowing it down gradually. Once the piece of junk loses its speed, it will enter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up!
“The power of a laser for destroying space junk is an order of magnitude lower than for nuclear fusion, but they share technical challenges such as controlling them via special mirrors,” said EX-Fusion CEO Kazuki Matsuo.
The laser will be stationed in an EOS Space-operated observatory near Canberra, Australia. It will begin with targeting debris that is smaller than 10 centimetres long, since objects this tiny are harder to detect in space. In the second instalment of the project, both companies, EX-Fusion and EOS Space, will try powering up the laser beams being fired from the ground.
While shooting lasers from the ground may face developmental challenges with respect to precision and power, this innovative approach could be a great — and we reiterate, an extremely fun — way of cleaning up pesky space junk from the increasingly crowded environs around our home planet.
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The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
Shambhu Kumar is a science communicator, making complex scientific topics accessible to all. His articles explore breakthroughs in various scientific disciplines, from space exploration to cutting-edge research.
