Sun’s energy could be used to zap dangerous asteroids Described
as a ‘directed energy orbital defense system’, DE-STAR is
designed to harness some of the power of the sun and convert it
into a massive phased array of laser beams that can destroy, or
evaporate, asteroids posing a potential threat to Earth. It can
also be used to deflect an asteroid away from Earth, or into the
sun – or to a conventient spot where it can be mined. “This
system is not some far-out idea from Star Trek,” says Gary B.
Hughes of California Polytechnic State University. “All the
components of this system pretty much exist today. Maybe not
quite at the scale that we’d need – scaling up would be the
challenge – but the basic elements are all there and ready to
go.” The larger the system, the greater its capabilities. For
example, a 100-meter version could start nudging comets or
asteroids out of their orbits,” Hughes said. But a 10-kilometer
version could deliver 1.4 megatons of energy per day to its
target, says Lubin, obliterating an