Space Debris Solution: the "other" Project Orion

[tampaDreamer]

Here’s my take on the laser broom idea. It won’t work.

Reason(s)
I think some have it in their mind that it will “vaporize” the debris. Well maybe, the small stuff. But that same vapor will become an expanding dust cloud. Do this a hundred times and what do you have? A dust belt. I hope flying through a dust belt will be less of a hazard than individual small pieces. Because you will be much more likely to hit the cloud than the small pieces.

As to the larger stuff, think through what will happen. The side facing the laser will heat up. At some point some part of that side will off gas, the early stage of vaporizing. This area is not likely to be the center of mass for the entire piece. The result will be rotation around the center of mass of the entire piece. If this piece is an entire satellite, the accelerating rotation is surely going to fling off sections into new orbits. More debris to put on the vaporize list.

What happens when the laser beam hits a highly polished surface? ie solar panels. There will be multiple reflections of a high power laser beam sweeping through an arc. Sooner or later one of these beams are going to take out some ones optical sensor. Or even an astronauts eyeballs while he uses binoculars to see his home town.

I think you should consider reading about this technology before coming to these conclusions. There is no 'vaporizing' going on here. As for astronauts eyeballs through binoculars -- LOL.