Russian Lasers Target Space Junk
Russia's Cosmic Guns Orbiting Debris in Space Target: Space Junk Russian scientists are developing cosmic guns to obliterate orbiting space junk of which there are a half million pieces. The Russians aren't alone. Japan and China have similar plans to train laser guns on space debris and decimate it. ROSCOSMOS Russia's Federal Space Agency ROSCOSMOS is behind the plan. It wants to convert 10 foot optical telescopes into laser cannons. The new technological device will be an optical debris detection system with an onboard solid state laser to vaporize debris. Laser Vision and Precision The search and destroy missions will happen in low earth orbit and fire up the space junk until they're destroyed. The space junk is composed of pieces of broken spacecrafts and other objects launched into space. They range in size from a marble to much larger, including 20,000 that are the size of a softball. This is a very significant problem be...