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XXI century tower: Laser orbital debris removal and collision avoidance by Max Calabro; Loïc Perrot is a Engineering article available to read on EtoBox.

What is XXI century tower: Laser orbital debris removal and collision avoidance about?

A tall "tower" may have many useful applications in scientific domain: energy production, telecommunications, and entertainment. Sometimes space towers are proposed for an easier access to space such as the Thoth project culminating to an altitude of more than 20km. Nevertheless, access to space is not the most promising use of a highaltitude tower, among them is the orbital debris removal, major point to keep a safe access to space. Ground based laser has been studied several times, laser on-board of a satellite also (chaser), but never a laser at the top of a tower. Such a solution may combine the advantages of the ground based system (i.e. maintenance, power supply, vast number of debris sightings, versatility) and of the space based system. Nevertheless, building a tall tower is a huge investment and must be profitable, but multiple applications of this tower may be envisaged such to have a good return of investment and so, the others potential utilisation may generate a bulk of revenues. As a driver, this tower supporting a powerful laser can be assimilated to a weapon and so must be kept under international control on the European territory.

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Author

Max Calabro; Loïc Perrot

Publisher

Elsevier BV

Published

2019

Language

EN

Field

Engineering (Physical Sciences)