Elon Musk and his SpaceX team want to launch up to one million satellites as part of a proposal to power massive data centres in space.
They pitch it as a clean, green alternative to regular data centres.
But as Earth’s orbit becomes increasingly crowded, what will Musk’s mega constellation do to our night sky? And could a crash between satellites set off a catastrophic chain reaction?
Today, Associate Professor of Astronomy Sam Lawler on the potential for disaster, the need for new space laws – and even the time a huge piece of space junk landed in her home town.
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