Satellite warfare: An arms race is brewing in orbit
Obviously the best way to avoid Kessler syndrome is to prevent it from occurring in the first place, but given the widespread short-termism everywhere these days, that seems naïve.<p>Are laser brooms the current state of the art when it comes to deorbiting? From this article [0], it appears to be quite slow but at least highly parallel, "cleaning" an object in 3-4 years but all addressable objects in ~5 years. It's still unclear to me if the principles required for them to function effectively are currently available, or if more development is required first.<p>Another concern is that large installations may be viewed with suspicion, given their potential applications as anti-satellite weapons, especially against surveillance satellites whose sensors (I assume) would be more sensitive to high-intensity illumination. Any ideas on how these concerns might be mitigated?<p>[0]: <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.3835" rel="nofollow">https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.3835</a>