SYDNEY — It may sound like science fiction but an Australian team is working on a project to zap orbital debris with lasers from Earth to reduce the growing amount of space junk that threatens to knock out satellites with a “cascade of collisions.” The project is very realistic and likely to be working in the next 10 years, Matthew Colless, director of Australian National University's Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, said. “It's important that it's possible on that scale because there's so much space junk up there,” he said. “We're perhaps only a couple of decades away from a catastrophic cascade of collisions ... that takes out all the satellites in low orbit.” Scientists believe there are more than 300,000 pieces of debris in space, made up of everything from tiny screws and bolts to large parts of rockets, mostly moving in low orbits around Earth at tremendous speed. Australia now has a contract with NASA to track and map space junk with a telescope equipped with an infra-red laser at Mount Stromlo Observatory. — Reuters
