When satellites die

[jod999]

Yesterday, I found out two scary factoids:

• It may only take the destruction of 10 satellites to create a chain reaction of destruction (the Kessler syndrome). This might put us into a satellite dark age for a decade.
• If the Global Positioning System (GPS) stopped working, the international finance system would stop. Banks use GPS timing signals to coordinate money transfers.

These two things aren't related. The great majority of satellites are in low Earth orbit, so that is where the danger of collision is. GPS satellites are in medium Earth orbit.
They are just two separate little reminders of how vulnerable we are, I guess.

PS: NASA's J-Track 3D satellite tracking is geeky fun. Don't try it over dial-up, though.