Satellites

Satellites was an eight part data visualisation poster series designed to draw attention to the increasing quantity of satellites orbiting the Earth. The first five posters explored existing debris, satellites, and past collisional debris separately. The final three posters overlaid the data for all trackable objects in low Earth orbit, showing just how dense the night sky is becoming. Kessler syndrome, first explained in the 1970’s by NASA scientist Donald Kessler, describes a scenario where the number of objects orbiting the Earth is so much that collisions between these objects triggers a runaway collisional cascade. The end result would render certain Earth orbits unusable, up to and including total human access to space, for centuries. Such an event would also have enormous consequences for life on Earth and the technology which permeates modern society. A full version of this project, submitted as a master's thesis for Massey University, may be downloaded here.