> Thrust in the radial direction (straight out) unintuitively does not raise an orbit; it increases eccentricity, so the highest point is higher and the lowest

> Thrust in the radial direction (straight out) unintuitively does not raise an orbit; it increases eccentricity, so the highest point is higher and the lowest point is lower, but since the impulse is orthogonal to the direction of motion it does not add any energy to the object. That doesn't really address the point that that'd make it dangerous due to hard to predict flight paths - and the outgassing wouldn't just happen directly outwards for all broken up parts. > In any case, heating from the Sun vastly outweighs anything coming from the Earth, and so would tend to push the object inwards on average. In the case of trying to destroy orbiting garbage via laser from earth (the OPs proposal, not my idea!)? You'd pretty fundamentally need higher energy than the sun delivers, albeit for obviously a very limited amount of time.