Space lasers to blast orbiting rubbish

While the Australian team’s plan is less like science fiction when they say the lasers will not vaporise the space debris, but move it into different orbits, it is still, as they put it, ‘rather cool’.

A team of scientists in Australia are preparing to fire high-powered lasers into space to blast some of the 170 million pieces of man-made debris orbiting the earth.

That cosmic clutter, building up since successful satellite launches began in 1957, poses a constant threat to satellites, spacecraft and people.

While firing lasers into space sounds like science fiction, scientists say the technology plays a very real role in keeping our planet safe by gently nudging the debris from one orbit into another.

Al Jazeera’s Mereana Hond takes aim.