Given the risk of asteroid collision with our planet , there are various initiatives to deal with it in which the use of a laser seems to be the common factor. A true orbital defense system.
The first of the initiatives has been baptized as DE-STAR ( Directed Energy System for Targeting of Asteroids and exploRation ) and the laser would be divided into several phases throughout the Earth’s orbit. Its operation is simple: the device would project a laser towards an asteroid, with enough energy to heat its surface and vaporize solid rock, which would generate a reaction force that would push the object in another direction (after expelling that vaporized material), something completely plausible with current technology.
The only “drawback” (or challenge today) is to create a system with the magnitude necessary for the asteroid or asteroids in question. For example, for an asteroid 110 meters in diameter, a laser array of equal length would be required to work properly at distances of about 3 million kilometers.
The second initiative is DE-STARLITE , a smaller laser that could travel alongside the asteroid in order to deflect its trajectory until it poses no danger to us. On a practical level, this system is more accessible, since a 20 kW version operational for 15 years could deflect an Apophis-sized asteroid (350 meters in diameter and with a relatively high probability of collision with Earth in 2029). ) at a distance equal to the diameter of the Earth. Smaller, but more effective in the short term. It would only take longer the larger the size of the asteroid or a larger laser to thereby reduce the time, researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara (USA) tell Astrowatch.net .
