Personal Satellites Are Go!

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I'm feeling a little artsy, but as I've taken on too many hobbies recently, I've decided to create vicariously through interesting people. Enter Hojun Song (Song Hojun?) a South Korean art futurist. I don't know whether to applaud him or to go Sarah Connor on his ass.

As you can see in the video, he's a cool, harmless geek. He's got long hair, he snowboards, and he's an artist/engineer with a mission: to help human beings create a relationship with the Universe via personal satellites. His name for them: Global Orbiting Device. Yep. He's just asking for it, isn't he?

His artwork is without any apparent irony, though. His Open Source Satellite Initiative, or OSSI, is his way of making space attainable for everyone. Everyone will have a satellite of his or her own to follow around the world, and it will possibly follow them. Here's the link to his free book courtesy of Google Books for all of you D.I.Y. types: "DIY Satellite". It's cheap, and attainable. You just need to find a a rocket to piggy back your satellite on.

What could possibly be wrong with that? These things are cute. They're made of aluminum, decorated with strong LEDs, and fit inside back-packs. The LEDs will be bright enough to shine out Morse-code messages over the world. Mr. Song touts them as "controllable shooting stars".

Say what?

What if your G.O.D. doesn't want to be shot to earth? What if each satellite acts as your own, personal spy? A satellite per person, spying on each person... A small voice in my head is screeching "Skynet" (oh, and it's probably happening.).

Here's a more practical concern: what if your little shooting star whacks a very expensive, government-owned satellite?

Granted, I don't know much about orbits or satellites, but I figure these are things to think about before you launch your personal satellite bombs.