How did we get here? It’s easy to forget that just seven decades ago the Moon was the only thing orbiting the Earth. On 1 January 2021 there were 6,542 satellites in orbit. Tellingly, only just over half of them were active. That’s a lot of useless metal careering around the planet at 28,000 kph — ten times faster than a bullet.
How bad is the problem? Very bad and getting worse. Estimates suggest there are currently half a million pieces of debris the size of a marble or larger an...