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We Fucked the Earth — Now We’re Fucking Up Space
And Elon could be the biggest fucker of them all
Did you know there are currently 7,800 active satellites orbiting the Earth? Or that 4,074 of them are owned by SpaceX?
Not only do SpaceX’s Starlink satellites account for more than half of all the active satellites, but Elon has plans for a ‘mega-constellation’ of 42,000
That’s clearly a lot of hardware, but space is big, right?
Well, yes and no. The actual usable space for satellites in low Earth orbit is very much finite, and it’s rapidly filling up with junk.
Way back in the very early days of space exploration the world was full of optimism and idealism regarding the potential benefits to all humanity of what was seen as vast, untapped new resources.
The Outer Space Treaty (OST) was established by the UN General Assembly in 1967 to govern activities in outer space. It was created to ensure that the exploration and use of space would be open to all humanity.
At the time the OST was created, no-one could have foreseen the exponential rate at which the number of anthropogenic objects in space would increase. Active satellites are just the tip of the iceberg.
