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With each new satellite that reaches orbit, the space above our heads becomes a little more congested. There are about 3,000 active satellites in service today, but that number is growing rapidly, especially as companies like Starlink are sending out 60 small satellites in a single launch. Add in the roughly 20,000 bits of orbital debris that authorities are actively tracking, and the picture of an unlimited expanse of space above Earth begins to feel a little different.
Moriba Jah is a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin whose mission is to clarify the issues of orbital congestion. He built a viewer called AstriaGraph which displays the positions of all actively tracked objects in the sky. He also designed a real-time graph that shows how close objects are to each other as they circle the planet, sometimes 15 times faster than a bullet.
The Big Bad in all of these calculations is a collision: two objects bumping into each other at terrible speeds, creating many pieces of new debris. Any of these new unwanted elements could continue to threaten other operational equipment. Whether such collisions could grow exponentially and wipe out entire eye sockets – the so-called “Kessler syndrome” – is up for debate. Jah, for one, isn’t suggesting that an orbital apocalypse is just around the corner. But some sort of satellite industry calculation may be needed.
The edge spoke with Jah about his plans and efforts. Watch the video above to see AstriaGraph and more in action.
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