This article was originally posted on Eco-Business by Sean Mowbray.
Plans are afoot to launch large mega-constellations of AI data centres into Earth orbit. That ambition, pursued by multiple space industry leaders, coincides with a warning from scientists of potentially “catastrophic outcomes,” as the likelihood of satellite collisions in orbit increases.
If all the satellites currently in low Earth orbit were suddenly unable to manoeuvre to avoid each other — a problem that could be triggered by a massive solar storm — then a potentially catastrophic collision would likely occur in just under four days, researchers say.
That’s the latest finding from the CRASH Clock, a tool developed to monitor the timeframe during which a low Earth orbit satellite collision is likely to happen during a major solar event. Such events are difficult to predict and come with limited warning; solar activity peaks roughly every 11 years. The CRASH Clock assesses the sustainability of space operations, explains Sarah Thiele, first author on the paper and a PhD student at Princeton University.
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