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Lorbeer RA, Zwilich M, Zabic M, et al. Experimental verification of high energy laser-generated impulse for remote laser control of space debris. Sci Rep. 2018;8(1):8453doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-26336-1.
Lorbeer, R. A., Zwilich, M., Zabic, M., Scharring, S., Eisert, L., Wilken, J., Schumacher, D., Roth, M., & Eckel, H. A. (2018). Experimental verification of high energy laser-generated impulse for remote laser control of space debris. Scientific reports, 8(1), 8453. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26336-1
Lorbeer, Raoul-Amadeus, et al. "Experimental verification of high energy laser-generated impulse for remote laser control of space debris." Scientific reports vol. 8,1 (2018): 8453. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26336-1
Lorbeer RA, Zwilich M, Zabic M, Scharring S, Eisert L, Wilken J, Schumacher D, Roth M, Eckel HA. Experimental verification of high energy laser-generated impulse for remote laser control of space debris. Sci Rep. 2018 May 31;8(1):8453. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-26336-1. PMID: 29855499; PMCID: PMC5981302.
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Sci Rep. 2018 May 31;8(1):8453. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-26336-1.

Experimental verification of high energy laser-generated impulse for remote laser control of space debris.

Scientific reports

Raoul-Amadeus Lorbeer, Michael Zwilich, Miroslav Zabic, Stefan Scharring, Lukas Eisert, Jascha Wilken, Dennis Schumacher, Markus Roth, Hans-Albert Eckel

Affiliations

  1. German Aerospace Center - Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR), Institut für Technische Physik, Studien und Konzepte, Pfaffenwaldring 38-40, 70569, Stuttgart, Germany. [email protected].
  2. German Aerospace Center - Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR), Institut für Technische Physik, Studien und Konzepte, Pfaffenwaldring 38-40, 70569, Stuttgart, Germany.
  3. GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Atomic, Plasma Physics and Application, Planckstraße 1, 64291, Darmstadt, Germany.
  4. Technische Universitt Darmstadt, Institut für Kernphysik, Schlossgartenstraße 9, 64289, Darmstadt, Germany.

PMID: 29855499 PMCID: PMC5981302 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-26336-1

Abstract

Walking along a beach one may notice debris being washed ashore from the vast oceans. Then, turning your head up at night you even might noticed a shooting star or a bright spot passing by. Chances are, that you witnessed space debris, endangering future space flight in lower earth orbit. If it was possible to turn cm-sized debris into shooting stars the problem might be averted. Unfortunately, these fragments counting in the 100 thousands are not controllable. To possibly regain control we demonstrate how to exert forces on a free falling debris object from a distance by ablating material with a high energy ns-laser-system. Thrust effects did scale as expected from simulations and led to speed gains above 0.3 m/s per laser pulse in an evacuated micro-gravity environment.

References

  1. J Phys Chem B. 2014 Aug 7;118(31):9356-60 - PubMed
  2. Appl Opt. 2014 Nov 1;53(31):I45-54 - PubMed
  3. Sci Rep. 2016 Aug 02;6:30697 - PubMed

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