>This really should be stopped now. Sure, stopping this instance is possibly worth the trouble, but what about next time? Amateur satellites are already possi

>This really should be stopped now. Sure, stopping this instance is possibly worth the trouble, but what about next time? Amateur satellites are already possible, thus the possibility of an ever increasing occurrence of space graffiti. The first issue is how one can stop space graffiti entirely. Should the UN get involved? Should NATO get involved? In any case, it would either be a statutory matter (pass a law against however-defined graffiti in space) or a military matter (use generally expensive anti-satellite missiles or lasers). The means to stop space graffiti seems to be rather expensive and politically charged/dependent. (for reference, I am not assuming that you want to do anything in particular, but I bring up criminalization of and shooting down space graffiti just to get on with my point.) The second issue is what harm is cause by space graffiti. Sure, unaware astronomers would be at least annoyed. Do they deserve a natural night sky to make their jobs easier? Space graffiti seems like art to me, but space debris seems the more serious possible problem. Since this specific instance of space graffiti seems to have planned for that, I think that harm is not a problem herewith. The third issue is whether anyone is obliged to not put astronomically obnoxious objects in orbit around earth; is this the same kind of "don't do" as assault or vandalism? If this specific instance of space graffiti were launched without public awareness, then astronomers might find this space art to be a problem, but I think that astronomers are probably watching news outlets for these sort of launches. Anything on the other side of the space graffiti is not un-see-able, but is that reason enough to either criminalize or shoot down space graffiti. Does anyone deserve the night sky to contain only natural light sources, but also a few super-useful objects (e.g. GPS satellites)? I bring all this up, because I hope to demonstrate that space graffiti, as stupid as it may be, is a very limited problem. It seems that the stupidity associated with a problem makes the problem seem bigger; ask anyone who has seen prank videos on YouTube whether the government should try to stop pranks. Graffiti on earth is often vandalism and art, yet nobody owns space so space graffiti cannot be vandalism but is still some sort of art.