travelling though orbit wont be a problem, but the risk for space stations in the most crowded altitudes of low earth orbit increases by some amount, yes.

self-loathing intensifies

continues to sit on couch, opening the second 6-pack of the night while shitposting on reddit at 4AM

have there been any consequences to that? i have the feeling there should have been.

possible, but from my layman understanding quite unlikely. leaving our planet only requires going through orbit once, or maybe assembling a bigger craft for a limited time. if low earth orbit is too messed up you "simply" go up to 1000km+, where there's much less stuff spread over much more space. you'll need more energy to reach those orbits, but then again, it's energy you safe when you launch that thing.

of course that only works up to a point. i don't think 100k satellites in LEO, mostly deorbiting in a matter of years due to atmospheric drag, will be the problem it is hyped up to be, but going forward not decades, but centuries and more, i have no idea what humans think of next to fuck it all up even more.

so yeah, from the current standpoint i don't think that space debris or the kesser syndrom are, or will be, substantial problems. but time doesn't stop at 2050, who knows what happens after that.

Agent Smith approves.