
How the future of satellites might affect life on Earth
Satellites from NASA and private companies are making headlines. What’s their history and how might their future affect space and life here on Earth?
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Show Notes
In 2020, the world celebrated two decades of continuous human presence aboard the International Space Station (ISS). As an orbiting laboratory that has provided astronauts with a view of Earth from outer space, the ISS may not seem very similar to other space innovations like CubeSats and NASA/USGS’s Landsat. But all of these devices are satellites: objects orbiting objects larger than themselves. Satellites can be natural (like the moon and planets, including Earth) or human-made (like the ISS). Joined by two experts in this outer-worldly technology, host Dr. Alok Patel explores how satellites have shaped our understanding of the modern world, including the Landsat program’s effort to create a space-based record of the surface of the Earth, and what lies ahead at the intersection of justice and space.