Military Technology

Seeing Li Weiguo waving his hand, Wu Hao changed the topic with a smile: "In fact, this laser strategic interception system has another function, or a huge effect.

That is, we can use it to remove some in-orbit junk debris, thereby avoiding the threat and damage of these debris to our important satellites and spacecraft. "

This is a very promising application. Both Li Weiguo and Wang Lianggong nodded involuntarily.

At present, there are a large amount of garbage debris in the earth's space orbit, and 99% of these debris are caused by human activities.

For example, some malfunctioning or decommissioned satellite fragments, some spacecraft fragments, and even some military experiment fragments.

These defunct satellites, spacecraft, collide with each other in orbit, creating more and smaller pieces of junk.

In recent years, there have been more and more satellites in space, especially some small micro-satellites, and large-scale satellite constellations sent to orbit on a large scale.

This has led to more and more junk debris in space orbit, and these junk debris are threatening satellites and spacecraft launched by humans all the time.

There have been a number of incidents of debris hitting spacecraft and satellites in recent years. For example, the famous International Space Station has been hit by garbage debris more than once, and several times it was very serious, causing gas leakage in the cabin.

Therefore, scientists and teams from various countries are conducting research on how to prevent these junk debris from causing damage to spacecraft or satellites in orbit.

Countries even plan to establish an international convention aimed at reducing 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.

But there is also a consensus, that is to reduce the generation of space debris as much as possible. For example, before the satellites and spacecraft of many countries are scrapped, they will use the remaining fuel to change the orbit of the satellite or spacecraft, let them change direction, fall into the atmosphere and burn.

But, this is just a proposal, not binding at all. Moreover, the technical threshold for satellite orbit change is relatively high, and the aerospace powers have mastered it. As for other countries that are determined to develop aerospace, it is a national celebration to send satellites into orbit, regardless of whether there will be space debris. .

Even if they care about this, they don't have the strength and technology in this area. Coupled with the failure of some satellites out of control and out of contact in various countries, the garbage in space orbit has not decreased, but has continued to grow and expand.

In addition to the fact that these space junks will affect the safety of spacecraft and satellites currently in orbit,

In fact, there is another reason.

That is, these space junks and debris occupy a lot of precious orbital resources. You must know that these orbital resources are limited and will disappear after being occupied.

That's why countries are scrambling to launch satellites to seize these precious space orbit resources.

Because of this, there are a lot of precious and very high-value orbits that contain debris and debris from decommissioning and malfunctioning satellites.

These satellite and spacecraft wreckage and space junk fragments continue to occupy these precious orbital resources. It takes a very slow process to make them all rely on the gravity of the earth to gradually lower their orbits and fall into the atmosphere and burn up. Obviously, countries are unwilling to wait for such a long time, so they are all conducting research in this area, how to clean up these space junk debris and satellite debris, and free up these precious orbital resources with relatively high value.

Regarding how to clean up these satellite debris and space junk debris, the ideas of all countries are more or less the same.

In the era before the space shuttle, Mi used the space shuttle to successfully capture a faulty and damaged satellite in orbit, and then bring it back to Earth for repair. After the repair was completed, it was launched into space again by rocket.

This is a satellite capture and recovery technology. Mi used the space shuttle to perform many such missions in space, and performed maintenance on some relatively high-value satellites in orbit.

One of the more famous ones is the several repairs and maintenance of the Hubble Space Telescope, but this technology has suffered major accidents in the Mi space shuttle, and finally chose to end after retirement.

In addition to the space shuttle, scientists have proposed several other satellite capture and recovery technologies, which 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 keep approaching the wreckage of the target satellite, and then release the catch net or claws to catch the satellite or the wreckage, and then the satellite de-orbits, and the carrying body falls into the earth .

According to the current technical level of the major aerospace countries, it is not difficult to realize this technology. 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 the satellites of other countries that are normally in orbit, and then pull them into the atmosphere and burn them down.

Even before being pulled into the atmosphere and burned up, and then using the spy devices on the satellites to steal the secrets on these satellites.

Although this technology is sensitive after all, and it is easy to be opposed by various countries, the research on this technology has not stopped all the time, and it is being carried out 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, which is to launch a satellite. However, this is not to chase and seize the target satellite or satellite wreckage, but to wait for the target satellite or the target satellite before taking the initiative to "throw in the arms".

To put it simply, after the satellite is sent to the target orbit by the rocket, after the orbit is constantly changed so that its orbit coincides with the target orbit, the satellite then unfolds a huge space network. Then slow down and wait for the target satellite to hit this large net.

Of course, this is a passive method, and there is also an active method, which is to use the large net opened by the satellite to capture and intercept space junk on the relevant orbit.

When enough pieces of space junk are captured, the satellites will drag them into the atmosphere and burn them up.

Finally, there is a more direct or more brutal method, that is, some aerospace powers have their own anti-satellite weapons, which are actually anti-satellite missiles.

It happens directly that this anti-satellite missile goes into space, attacks the target, and blows it into smaller pieces.

But, 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 have a terrible chain reaction.

Therefore, this technology is generally not mentioned, and it is only used in necessary and urgent situations.