Seeing Li Weiguo wave his hand, Wu Hao smiled and changed the subject: "In fact, this laser strategic interception system has another function, or a huge role.
That is, we can use it to remove some debris in orbit, thereby avoiding the threat and damage caused by these debris to our important satellites and spacecraft. "
This is a very promising application. Li Weiguo and Wang Lianggong couldn't help but nodded.
There are currently a large amount of garbage debris in the earth's space orbit, and 99% of these debris are caused by human activities.
For example, there are some fragments of failed or decommissioned satellites, some spacecraft fragments, and even some fragments of military experiments.
These failed satellites and spacecraft collide with each other in orbit, forming more and smaller debris.
In recent years, there have been more and more satellites in space, especially small micro-satellites and large-scale satellite constellations sent into orbit on a large scale.
This has led to more and more debris in space orbit, which threatens satellites and spacecraft launched by humans at all times.
In recent years, there have been many incidents of debris hitting spacecraft and satellites. For example, the famous International Space Station has been hit by debris more than once, and several times it was so serious that it caused the leakage of cabin gas.
Therefore, scientists and militaries from various countries are conducting research on how to prevent these debris from causing damage to orbiting spacecraft or satellites.
Countries are even planning to formulate an international convention to reduce the generation of space junk and debris. However, this aspect involves the interests of all countries, and the demands of each country are different, so it is difficult to achieve it.
But there is also a consensus that the generation of space debris should be reduced as much as possible. For example, before many countries' satellites and spacecraft are scrapped, they use the remaining fuel to de-orbit the satellites or spacecraft, causing them to change direction and fall into the atmosphere and burn up.
But, this is just an initiative and has no binding force at all. Moreover, the technical threshold for satellite orbit change is relatively high and is controlled by the major aerospace countries. As for other countries that are bent on developing aerospace, being able to put satellites into orbit is a grand event celebrated by the whole country, regardless of whether space debris will be generated. .
Even if they care about this, they don't have the strength or technology in this area. Coupled with some malfunctioning and out-of-control satellites from various countries, the amount of garbage in space orbit has not decreased, but has continued to grow and expand.
In addition to the fact that these space debris will affect the safety of spacecraft and satellites currently in orbit, there is actually another reason.
That is, these space junk and debris occupy a lot of precious orbital resources. You must know that these orbital resources are limited and will be gone after they are occupied.
That’s why countries are rushing to launch satellites to seize these precious space orbital resources.
Because of this, many precious and very valuable orbits contain debris, garbage and debris generated after the decommissioning and failure of satellites.
These satellite and spacecraft debris, as well as space debris, continue to occupy these precious orbital resources. It requires a very slow process to let them all rely on the earth's gravity to gradually lower their orbits and fall into the atmosphere and burn up. Obviously, countries are currently unwilling to wait for such a long time, so they are all conducting research in this area on how to clean up these space debris and satellite debris and free up these valuable orbital resources with relatively high value.
All countries have similar ideas on how to clean up these satellite debris and space debris.
In the era before the space shuttle, Mi once used the space shuttle to successfully capture a malfunctioning and damaged satellite in orbit, and then brought it back to Earth for repair. After the repair was completed, it was launched into space by rocket.
This is a satellite capture and recovery technology. Milley has used the space shuttle to perform many such missions in space and repair and maintain some high-value satellites in orbit.
One of the more famous ones is the several repairs and maintenance of the Hubble Space Telescope. However, this technology ended after the Mi space shuttle suffered a series of major accidents and finally chose to retire.
In addition to the space shuttle, scientists have proposed several other satellite capture and recovery technologies. This technology can also be used to capture, recover and clean up satellite debris.
To put it simply, it is to launch a satellite into space, let the satellite continue to approach the target satellite debris, and then release the capture net or claw to catch the satellite or satellite debris, and then the satellite will deorbit and fall into the earth with the body. .
According to the current technical level of major aerospace countries, this technology is not difficult to implement. It's just that this technology is relatively sensitive.
Since this technology can capture satellite debris, pull it into the atmosphere and burn it. So why can't it also capture other countries' satellites that are normally in orbit, and then pull them into the atmosphere and burn them.
Even before being pulled into the atmosphere and burned up, the spy devices on the satellites are then used to steal the secrets on these satellites.
Although this technology is sensitive after all and is easily opposed by various countries, research on this technology has never stopped and is being conducted in secret.
It's just that until now, no one has publicly demonstrated the technology and experimental results in this area.
And there is another technology, which is actually similar to this technology. It also involves launching a satellite. However, this is not to chase and seize the target satellite or satellite debris, but to wait and wait for the target satellite or target satellite to take the initiative to 'throw itself into its arms'.
To put it simply, after the satellite is launched into the target orbit by a rocket, after continuous orbit changes to make its orbit coincide with the target orbit, the satellite then spreads out a huge space network. Then it slows down and waits for the target satellite to hit this big net.
Of course, this is a passive method, and there is also an active method, which is to use the large net spread by satellites to capture and intercept space junk in relevant orbits.
When enough space debris is captured, the satellite will then drag the debris into the atmosphere and burn it.
Finally, there is a more direct or crude method, which is that some major space powers have their own anti-satellite weapons, which are actually anti-satellite missiles.
It happens directly that this kind of anti-satellite missile goes into space, attacks the target, and blows it into smaller pieces.
However, this is to destroy the target object, but it forms more and smaller garbage fragments. These flying debris are likely to accidentally damage satellites in other orbits, and even cause a terrible chain reaction.
Therefore, this technology is generally not mentioned and is only used in necessary emergency situations.
