‘time of flight’ tagged posts

Fighting the perils of space debris: Fraunhofer IOF’s fiber laser technology. © Photo Fraunhofer IOF

Uncontrollable flying objects in orbit are a massive risk for modern space travel, and, due to our dependence on satellites today, it is also a risk to global economy. A research team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF in Jena, Germany, has now especially developed a fiber laser that reliably determines the position and direction of the space debris’ movement to mitigate these risks.

Space debris is a massive problem in low Earth orbit space flight. Decommissioned or damaged satellites, fragments of space stations and other remnants of space missions pose a potential threat of collisions with active satellites and spacecraft every day...