Hunting for Electromagnetic Solitons in the Laboratory

The near-Earth space environment is growing ever more cluttered and has led to an exponential growth of orbital debris. Collisions with these objects traveling at orbital speeds has resulted in serious malfunctions or the disabling of satellite systems. Orbital debris down to a cm are catalogued and tracked to aid in collision avoidance. However, NASA reports that a collision with an object as small as a millimeter traveling at orbital speeds can be mission ending. Consequently, there has been a concerted effort to develop innovative detection techniques that can track the multitude of sub-centimeter sized debris and provide enough warning time for a satellite to react.