What Could Go Wrong? The Big Business of Exploiting Space, Sea, and Tortoises

From deadly space sprinkles to undersea Faberge eggs to the risks posed by flying tortoise shells, we're talking about unintended consequences in distant places.

The recent lunar eclipse has us looking to the sky, where we see ... a ton of debris. A Russian anti-satellite test gifted Earth's orbit with a lot of shrapnel. Astronauts on the International Space Station had to hide out in "lifeboats" probably trying not to imagine that scene from Gravity. 

The whole affair got us thinking about how our orbit is getting crowded by more & more government and commercial satellites, raising the specter of "Kessler syndrome" — an unfortunate outbreak of space junk with long-term effects including not being able to go to space anymore.

Then it's down to the depths of the ocean, where little potato rocks called "polymetallic nodules" may offer a source of metals necessary for all our EV needs, without all the mining. The news media is certainly in favor! We look at how San Diego's NBC and ABC news go gaga for nodules and the adventurous band of explorers going to collect 'em. (The nodules, not the news shows.) But these lovely lumps may not be so environmentally swell after all, say environmentalists. (Also, did you know there's an international group just dealing with the seabed, AKA Earth's basement?)

Finally our trip ends up in the Mojave, where we talk desert tortoises and solar farms and ask if we can go anywhere in nature without screwing it up.

All this and a case of mistaken identity and Mars Attacks! Keep your eyes to the skies ... and seas ... and probably everywhere else, too.