International Space Station may get laser cannon to vaporize orbital debris

originally posted by: engineercutout

originally posted by: InTheLight

So, then, it appears the only motivation for cleaning up this problem, would be to make room for war machines.

Debris obstruction will apply to any mission, warlike or not. Besides, I'm pretty sure the war machines you seem to be worried about are already up there, and have been for many years. Perhaps to make room for more war machines, or the next generation of them or whatever, but let's hope not.

Indeed, let's hope not, but do we really expect China, North Korea, Iran and other nations developing space technology to be on board, when military might is at the top of the list?

Multilaterally, the United States could continue to develop and promote bilateral and multilateral transparency and confidence-building measures in outer space, expanding on the UN Group of Governmental Experts' roadmap published in July 2013. This would include information exchanges and notifications, consultative mechanisms, shared space situational awareness, and the publication of national space policies. Likewise, the United States could seek to advance discussions in the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which is developing best practices for space debris and collaborative space situational awareness.
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Though the United States has limited leverage over the actions of China, North Korea, and Iran in space, it does have numerous options available to mitigate or prevent dangerous space incidents and limit the multiplication of space debris that threaten U.S. space assets and assured access to the domain. Some policymakers will argue that these recommendations require too much transparency into U.S. space operations and could pose operational constraints. Others will contend that these do not go far enough to address the reality of space threats and that the United States will waste its diminishing lead role if it does not take more proactive and radical steps. But U.S. policy must balance both demands by implementing the practical set of recommendations provided in this report. On the current path, the likelihood of potentially dangerous space incidents will only increase, whereas a renewed focus on preventing and mitigating such events would markedly reduce this threat. If the United States wishes to better guarantee its access to space as China, North Korea, and Iran advance their capabilities and other space powers emerge, it must intensify its efforts to have an impact or forsake its role in shaping rules of the road for space.

www.cfr.org...

Awesome deal! I did a websearch on "ISS laser cannon" and there wasn't anything new since this thread was made. My question is would this laser cannon be manual? Would there be a computer guidance system to detect space junk and automatically fire the laser cannon?

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