Abstract:OrbitaldebrisinlowEarthorbit(LEO)arenowsufficientlydensethatthe use of LEO space is threatened by runaway collisional cascading. A problem predictedmorethanthirtyyearsago,thethreatfromdebrislargerthanabout1cm demandsseriousattention.Apromisingproposedsolutionusesahighpowerpulsed lasersystemontheEarthtomakeplasmajetsontheobjects,slowingthemslightly, and causing them to re-enter and burn up in the atmosphere. In this paper, we reassessthisapproachinlightofrecentadvancesinlow-cost,light-weightmodular designforlargemirrors,calculationsoflaser-inducedorbitchangesandindesignof repetitive, multi-kilojoule lasers, that build on inertial fusion research. These advances now suggest that laser orbital debris removal (LODR) is the most costeffective way to mitigate the debris problem. No other solutions have been proposedthataddressthewholeproblemoflargeandsmalldebris.ALODRsystem will have multiple uses beyond debris removal. International cooperation will be essentialforbuildingandoperatingsuchasystem.