fic monitor for the heavens that takes the
often conflicting data from satellites and
ground-based sensors and combines them
into a 3D display.
Born in San Francisco to immigrant par-
ents, raised in Venezuela, and trained at
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Jah didn’t
expect to spend his career tracking space
trash. It seemed like “the most unsexy,
unappealing thing you could do in life,” he
says. But 20 years later, Jah sees it as the
key to ensuring the sustainability of space
exploration. After all, it’s not just national
space agencies contributing to the con-
gestion anymore. Private companies plan
to deploy thousands of small satellites in
the coming years, at least tripling the total
number in orbit and greatly increasing the
risk of a collision. Jah can’t enforce the rules
of the road for these new operators, but
he can, at least, give them a map of where
they’re going. —DANIEL OBERHAUS
AN ESTIMATED
500,000 HUMAN-MADE OBJECTS
ARE HURTLING AROUND
OUR PLANET RIGHT NOW.
MORE THAN 99 PERCENT
OF THEM ARE JUNK.
