Space Invaders, IRL: Japanese startup to zap space junk with ground-based laser beams!

If you’re old enough to remember those pixelated aliens zipping across your screen in the arcade classic Space Invaders, here’s a blast from the past alert. In true video game-style, a Japanese startup is set to tackle a very real problem that threatens the human race.

No, we're not talking about laser beams vaporising extraterrestrial threats (though that would be pretty cool), but the menace of space junk!

EX-Fusion is an Osaka-based startup with a plan that's as audacious as it is ingenious: zapping space debris with a ground-based laser beam. Think of it as a real-life version of Space Invaders, although the stakes are a bit higher — protecting our planet from a growing cloud of defunct satellites, rocket stages, and other human-made detritus.

But unlike the laser cannons in the game, EX-Fusion's weapon of choice isn't your typical sci-fi blaster. They're using a sophisticated diode-pumped solid-state laser, a technology that packs a punch without needing the overkill of a weapon-grade laser. The goal is to hit the space junk from the opposite direction of its travel, slowing it down gradually until it re-enters Earth's atmosphere and burns up.

The laser will be set up at an observatory near Canberra, Australia, courtesy of EOS Space — another startup partnering with EX-Fusion. Its first targets will be tiny space junk, less than 10 centimetres long, because these little buggers are tough to spot in the vastness of space. In the project's next phase, both companies plan to crank up the power of the ground-based laser beams for even bigger cleanup jobs.

Sure, shooting lasers from the ground comes with its own set of challenges, like aiming precisely at fast-moving objects miles away and dealing with atmospheric interference. But if EX-Fusion pulls this off, it could be a game-changer for cleaning up our increasingly crowded space environment.

It's innovative, it's exciting, and it just might be the key to keeping our cosmic neighbourhood clean and safe. Who knows, maybe someday we'll even see laser-equipped satellites patrolling the skies, blasting debris and racking up points in a real-life, space-based Space Invaders tournament! Now that's a future worth fighting for.