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Lauren Grush:
So, the biggest concern of people is obviously this problem of orbital debris. We already have several thousand satellites in space right now. And that could triple or quadruple that number with the Starlink initiative alone. The problem is that these satellites are moving thousands of kilometers to the hour in space. They do not just float up there.
So if one of them clashes with another, it could create a very catastrophic debris field and these debris will also move thousands of kilometers an hour.
The good news is that the space is big. And so these collisions really do not happen very often, if at all. However, the more we put in place, the greater the risk that these collisions will occur.
The good news though, is that SpaceX has been thinking about the issue because it has orbital debris reduction plans. On the one hand, they have this kind of as a G.P.S. On their satellites, at least, they say, where they use the tracking information available to the Air Force and who use it to avoid the maneuvers that prevent them from colliding with something. And also the orbits to which they surrender will eventually decompose over time because of gravity, our atmosphere will lower them.
But that's still a concern and it's not the case, no one really knows what's going to happen, but we're asking you to think of ways to alleviate that problem before we get into space.
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