The Kessler Syndrome

With more satellites orbiting our planet, the odds increase dramatically of something hitting one of them and creating a cloud of debris. The idea was first posited in a 1978 paper authored by Robert Kessler - after whom the effect is named. We might be somewhere away yet from a cataclysmic chain reaction of satellite destruction like that, but it's yet another challenge for us to face as we continue with space-wood.