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The apocalypse above our heads

A regular reader sent me the link to a fascinating article I'll share with you today.

This piece paints a picture of the huge vulnerability that exists just a few hundred kilometers above our heads... in space.

Right now there are many thousands of satellites orbiting the planet, providing invaluable services to mankind. Whether it's a constant stream of images that allow forecasters to better predict the weather or Starlink satellites that allow people in even the most remote locations to watch cute cat videos on Facebook, this orbiting technology has become absolutely essential to the modern world.

Now you might think that, given the difficulties associated with getting into space, this collection of satellites would be safe from bad actors... but you'd be wrong.

The article paints a rather gloomy picture of what might happen at the hands of a "bad actor" (who knew Steven Segal was even interested in this stuff? :-).

Published on TheConversation.com, the article is titled The threat of space terrorism is no longer science fiction, but we’re ill-prepared to combat it and well worth a read.

I won't go into the details of just how bad actors or even enemy nations could wreack havoc in the heavens but suffice to say that there appear to be a plethora of attack vectors available to any well-funded and highly motivated group wishing to do so.

The real concern, at least to me, would be not so much an attack and the immediate effects thereof but the long-term aftermath and its effects on our civilization.

I've discussed the Kessler Syndrome in several previous columns and it strikes me that any significant disruption of our orbiting inventory of satellites could well be the catalyst for such an event. Even the act of simply disrupting a control-link to a group of satellites in close proximity to each other might result in collisions and a rapid rise in the levels of space junk produced.

One only has to look at recent stories such as this one to see that space junk already poses a threat to anything in earth orbit and the situation would quickly escalate to chaos if earth orbit became a combat zone.

The long-term outlook would be pretty dire if we did end up triggering the Kessler Syndrome. Earth's orbit would become a minefield and anything passing through it would be at risk of destruction without warning.

The result would be that we, as a civilization, would lose access to all the benefits that we currently gain from having satellites in orbit, especially low-earth orbit. Even if we put up new birds, they'd eventually (perhaps sooner rather than later) be torn to shreds by the orbiting buckshot composed of previously destroyed craft.

Imagine a world without GPS, without Starlink, without weather satellites and without the host of other services that require a view of the planet from outer space.

Geostationary satellites may still be a viable option -- but only if new ones can survive the trip through that orbiting minefield of space wreckage.

Enjoy the benefits of satellite technology while you can, it may be an inevitability that it will not be around forever. Sooner or later some extremist group or perhaps even just a conflict between major powers will ruin it for us all. The effects will linger for centuries and set us back decades.

Carpe Diem folks!

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