A Question of Design

By Michael on October 4, 2007 at 11:11 am | In Blog Posts |

Sputnik
We recently passed the 50 year anniversary of Sputnik. The fact that we (the human race) were able to get an artificial satellite orbiting the planet represented a major leap forward. You need to understand physics and harness a lot of energy in just the right way to get out of the gravity well. We did it and the 50 years since have been amazing as a result. We currently have over 3000 satellites orbiting the earth.

The thought I had was — would ancient people have been able to figure out that artificial satellites are artificial? That they are the products of design and not a part of the natural world? With the whole faux debate about evolution vs. intelligent design, the question arises: would scientists recognize design if they found it? Could Kepler have figured out that an artificial satellite was artificial?

I believe the answer is yes. In one sense, an artificial satellite behaves exactly like a natural satellite. But not quite. The geometry of a man made object is more perfect. I believe one could map the brightness changes, just like we do with asteroids, and come up with a good model of the shape of the object. It would take time and precise observations, but the non-natural nature would eventually become apparent.

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  1. This post reminds me of an art piece I saw in Cambridge, Ontario not too many years ago. The artist was visiting Papua New Guinea and speaking with someone who lived away from the city. That person asked him "Why do some stars run?" The artist thought about how they should answer - the business about the Cold War, the space race, the development of ICBMs etc. He decided that no reasonable person unfamiliar with it would believe it, so he answered "I don’t know."

    I wish that I remembered the artist’s name!

    Comment by dougwelch — October 4, 2007 #

  2. From the ground, I don’t know how a casual observer would distinguish the artificial satellites from small, swift natural satellites such as Mars’s Phobos that orbits in 7 hours. But they are generally not orbiting in the ecliptic plane, so they would betray themselves by being more wandering than the natural wanderers.

    When I see the space station going by, I’m awed by the thought that there are people living up there. When I see the satellites, I don’t think of war - I think of exploration and science.

    Comment by bethkatz17582 — October 7, 2007 #

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