Composite-based orbital debris mitigation tiles to be deployed on new satellite. As I’ve previously confessed, I am a nerd, and that means I tend to fixate on weird, specific stuff. For example: Kessler Syndrome. I don’t precisely recall when I first heard about it, but for a long time now I’ve been stuck on this idea that we could pollute low Earth orbit (LEO) to such an extent that it could become unusable, or even impassable. It’s been used to great dramatic effect in fiction (though I wish there were more readily available examples than an anime/manga, a middling sci-fi novel, and a Sandra Bullock movie) but whether and to what extent Kessler Syndrome is a threat in reality remains an open question. Of course, it is worth noting that Starlink currently has 4,437 satellites in low Earth orbit, Amazon’s Leo project is aiming to launch over a thousand satellites this year, and China’s Guowang LEO constellation is reportedly expected to consist of nearly 13,000 satellites (not to mention the other 200,000 China just applied to launch).
Published: January 16, 2026 3:51 pm
Source: Engineering.com — Read original