Space debris has become a matter of concern for space agencies. As per estimations, there are around 500,000 pieces of debris, including defunct parts of old satellites, rockets and spacecraft, of varying sizes like the size of a marble, or larger are orbiting earth.

This debris can travel at quite a speed of up to 17,500 miles per hour. The speed at which it travels is enough to cause damage to satellites and the ISS. Now, a team of researchers from Japan’s Riken research institute have come up with a plan to get rid of this debris.

A paper published in the journal Acta Astronautica proposed a method as per which around 3,000 tons of debris with the help of a fiber optic laser mounted on the ISS. The procedure would involve tracking the space junk using the infrared telescope of the European Space Agency’s Extreme Universe Space Observatory (EUSO).

After detecting the junk, the proposed plan would be using a fiber-based laser system to shoot the debris items till the time they are eliminated from the orbit and destroy while re-entering into earth’s atmosphere.

“The intense laser beam focused on the debris will produce high-velocity plasma ablation, and the reaction force will reduce its orbital velocity, leading to its reentry into the earth's atmosphere”, said the researchers.

Now, the researchers are planning to conduct an experiment on the ISS using a small version of the telescope and a laser with 100 fibers. If all goes according to the plan then they will come up with a plan to install a full-scale version on the ISS.

Study’s lead author Toshikazu Ebisuzaki said that in future they can plan to create a free-flyer mission and place it in a polar orbit at an altitude near 800 kilometers.