Design for a Machine, French, eighteenth century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Elisha Whittelsey Collection, Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1962.
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Miscellany
In 1978 NASA scientists Donald J. Kessler and Burton G. Cour-Palais predicted that the number of artificial satellites in low earth orbit might reach such density as to spark a cascade of collisions. The resulting debris belt would eventually make some orbits nearly impassable. “Under certain conditions,” they wrote, “the belt could begin to form within this century and could be a significant problem during the next century.”
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
—Richard Feynman, 1986
