James GleickDec 1, 2024

This seems so science-fictiony that most people won't take it seriously. That would be a bad mistake.

Not only are we messing up the planet, we're also inadvertently shutting our door to space. When we're shut in, we're probably shut in for ever.

And when I say "we" are shutting that door, I mean mainly Musk.

https://robertvanwey.substack.com/p/the-imminence-of-the-destruction

The Imminence of the Destruction of the Space Program

New calculations put the date much closer than we should be comfortable with

The Evidence Files
Show threadDan GillmorDec 2, 2024

@gleick Musk's satellites have already pretty much ruined terrestrial astronomy, and when the others start launching their "constellations" (!) we may arrive at the Kessler scenario a lot sooner than previous worst estimates. So some of the competitors are likely to be stopped before they get any serious numbers into LEO.

All of these projects are a land grabs (space grabs?) -- and no one in the U.S. government seems to have a clue about why it is a terrible idea to give it all to Musk.

Show threadkampfschwaetzer
@dangillmor @gleick Perhaps we should warn in the same way on this issue and on climate issues. If the Kessler scenario happens sooner, perhaps the skeptics on climate issues will be convinced, as it will be proven that they were wrong to be skeptics on the Kessler scenario.
Already sounds as desperate as I feel in various discussions with politicians and journalists.
Dec 2, 2024 at 12:43pmWeb