Ground based laser could deflect spacejunk

NASA scientists propose using a medium powered ground based laser to push away space objects in low-Earth orbit that danger spacecraft and space stations.

Right now we don't have any real methods of dealing with the ever increasing space junk that's orbiting the planet, caused by human activity. Eventually so many debris would collect that tracking all of the junk would become impossible. Then space missions would be significantly endangered. 

A ground based laser, which doesn't even need to be that powerful, could significantly alter the orbits of these junk pieces to make them, for instance, burn up in the atmosphere.

More at popsci.com and the paper itself.
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