Laser cannons controlled by artificial intelligence in space

2023-10-05 18:45:09

An increasingly worrying amount of space debris, made up of decommissioned satellites and pieces of these and other space vehicles, is accumulating around the Earth. The more debris there is in orbit, the greater the risk that some of it will collide with in-service spacecraft, including those with people on board. Scientists have come to the conclusion that the best way to avoid these collisions is to put satellites equipped with laser cannons and controlled by artificial intelligence on patrol around the Earth so that they can act on their own against any piece of space debris that is a threat. imminent for some spacecraft in service.

Thanks to artificial intelligence, these vehicles armed with laser cannons could decide the maneuvers to perform to act quickly against any piece of space junk of any size. One or more of these vehicles could be involved in each elimination operation.

This line of research and development is funded by NASA. The work is being carried out by Hang Woon Lee’s team at Western Virginia University.

The work is in its early stages and the research team is currently verifying the characteristics of the algorithms that will control the laser cannons.

Other researchers are developing systems to remove space debris, but they use hooks, harpoons, nets and other similar tools, but they only work on large debris objects. Lee’s system should be able to remove objects of almost any size.

The network of satellites with laser cannons will be able to make many decisions on its own, performing maneuvers and setting priorities without depending on direct human instructions.

The orbital space around the Earth, and especially the lower orbital fringe, is filling up with debris. This constitutes a threat to active spaceships and also to the lives of humans who are aboard some of these ships. The proposed system at Western Virginia University for removing the most dangerous debris would fire laser cannons at any piece of threatening space debris, deflecting it from its collision path or even forcing it to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere to break up there. (Illustration: WVU/Savanna Leech)

The system will dictate which combination of laser cannons it fires and at which pieces, while ensuring that the new trajectories of objects hit by the laser beams do not pose a risk of collision.

Laser cannons, although powerful, will not be so powerful that they instantly volatilize the entire object they fire at. Instead, the laser beam vaporizes a small part of the object, generating a plume of high-speed plasma that deflects it from its trajectory and sends it into another orbit. The new orbit can be chosen precisely using several laser cannons, and the object can even be sent to an orbit that ends up causing its atmospheric re-entry, causing it to burn up due to the friction of the air as it falls to Earth and disappear forever from orbital space. . (Source: NCYT from Amazings)