iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Kelsey Johnson

cosmicfineprint.bsky.social @cosmicfineprint.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I'm not at all convinced we appreciate all the externalities we've let in the gate, but I am 100% sure it isn't the #AI companies who will pay the price.

Black-and-white ink cartoon of a huge wooden Trojan horse on wheels labeled “Generative AI.” A tiny ancient Greek soldier stands beside it holding a spear. At his feet is a small empty water trough. Looking up at the enormous horse, he says, “We’re gonna need a bigger trough.” The cartoon uses the Trojan horse and the undersized trough to evoke questions about generative AI’s water demands and the less visible consequences of allowing it into everyday life.

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Reposted by Kelsey Johnson

cosmicfineprint.bsky.social @cosmicfineprint.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

The spectacular #Roman mission is on its way to help us learn amazing things about the universe. Roman has successfully separated from SpaceX. NASA... not so much. ✨🔭🧪🚀

Cartoon of a Roman Space Telescope mission control room. A large checklist reads: “Launch” ✓, “Stage separation” ✓, “Roman separation” ✓, and “NASA separation from SpaceX” unchecked. Two mission controllers look at the board; one says, “Private launch. Public capture.”

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Reposted by Kelsey Johnson

cosmicfineprint.bsky.social @cosmicfineprint.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Did you know the FAA wants to waive 13 federal environmental laws for commercial rocket launch and reentry? ✨Comments are due by Aug 31.✨ More at this link on the situation and how to submit useful comments. kelseyjohnson367.substack.com/p/the-launch... 🔭🧪🚀 #EnviSci

A black-and-white cartoon illustrated a rocket launch location polluting a local wetland habitat.

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

The FAA wants to waive 13 environmental laws for commercial launches. Meanwhile federal projections can’t even agree on the # of launches/reentries a year. This seems like a spectacularly bad time to stop measuring the consequences. Comments due Aug. 31. open.substack.com/pub/kelseyjo... 🧪🔭🚀

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Reposted by Kelsey Johnson

cosmicfineprint.bsky.social @cosmicfineprint.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

“Into what?” Aluminum. Copper. Lithium. Lead. Titanium. Chromium. Nickel. Niobium. Hafnium. And a long list of metal oxides. We are turning satellites into atmospheric chemistry. (and before a smartypants points out meteors, the projected values from 🛰️+🚀 are orders of magnitude higher) 🧪🔭🐡

Black-and-white ink cartoon titled “Into What?” Two men in business suits stand in front of a landscape filled with rockets launching into the sky. One, holding a clipboard, says, “Don’t worry. When we’re done with them, they should each vaporize in the upper atmosphere.” The other replies, “Into what?”

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Reposted by Kelsey Johnson

cosmicfineprint.bsky.social @cosmicfineprint.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

How quickly “shared human heritage” becomes “just a rock” once somebody shows up with explosives and an unfathomably large budget. ✨🔭🧪🐡 #SpaceEthics #Moon #Cartoon

Black-and-white two-panel cartoon. In the top panel, five people watch an explosion on the Moon and cheer: “We get to watch the show!”, “This is so cool!”, “Humans are awesome,” “The next frontier!”, and “Who cares, it’s just a rock.” In the bottom panel, seven people look at an intact Moon and describe what it means to them: stories from a grandmother, connection across time and space, inspiration for songs, a shared sky, a reminder that we are part of something vast and old, a hope that grandchildren will see it this way, and feelings of peace and wonder. A black panel beneath asks: “Can you guess which perspectives have a seat at the table?”

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Reposted by Kelsey Johnson

cosmicfineprint.bsky.social @cosmicfineprint.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

✨New Account I've started drawing editorial cartoons about space ethics, because apparently writing only works if people read. If you like space with a side of “have we really thought this through?”, please follow. Reposts, likes etc would help this new account lift off. Y'all know the drill. 🙏🏻 🔭🧪🐡

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Lovely people— I just started a new account to share my editorial cartoons related to the accelerating human footprint in space. Please welcome @cosmicfineprint.bsky.social ! Huge 🙏 and 💜 for likes and follows!

A black and white cartoon of Earth with a price tag that says, “Market Value TBD”.

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I had planned to do other things today, but here we are. ✨🔭🧪 open.substack.com/pub/kelseyjo...

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

5) What does this mean? All of humanity will lose access to the night sky. Ground-based astronomy will be impossible. And satellite debris and pollution from launch and reentry will be off the charts.

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

4) Even if < 0.3% of them go forward, there will be more satellites than stars visible to humans in the night sky. No matter where you are.

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

3) As of today, there 2,235,995 additional "planned" satellites with applications submitted to the International Telecommunications union (and this number keeps going up). Probably most of them won't happen. My best is ~10-20% will.

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

2) From the darkest skies, a typical human eye can see ~5000 stars with a naked eye (give or take). With few exceptions, satellite companies have been unable (or unwilling) to make satellites fainter than the human eye limit (7th magnitude).

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

1) Yes, satellites can do real good -- especially for rural locations, providing access to education, healthcare, etc. I support that. BUT, the overwhelming majority of bandwidth is used for high-def video streaming, online gaming, and shopping.

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

I'm consumed be "externalities" that private companies quietly distribute across humanity for profit while preaching narratives about "progress". Add in "Shifting Baseline Syndrome" and most people don't notice what's happening until it is too late. Some underlying verifiable facts 👇 ✨🔭🧪

Cartoon illustrating satellites crossing the night sky circa 2030, seen from a wilderness area. A child asks, "What is that point of light that doesn't move?"

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

This has nothing to do with politics. I haven’t even mentioned politics. This is straight up science, with verifiable figures. We don’t know what the impact will be, but atmospheric chemistry is sensitive in ways we don’t always predict. That you see politics in this reflects your own biases. ✌️

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

💯 agree. The log scales are key here.

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

FYI #SpaceX is leading an uncontrolled global-scale experiment in the upper atmosphere as satellites are vaporized in the upper atmosphere on reentry. The impact on atmospheric chemistry, aerosol microphysics, cloud formation, and radiative effects are not currently well understood. ✨🔭🧪🛰️

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Whoops I see I have an typo -- they are NOT currently well understood. I will delete and repost!

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

No... because we don't know them yet. 😬

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

To be clear, a number of assumptions are necessary to make these estimates. All of the values used here are defensible. But even tweaking them does not radically change things on the scales here.

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

The concern is not actually direct exposure, but whether the impact on atmospheric chemistry, aerosol microphysics, cloud formation, radiative effects, how long it persists, and where it accumulates. None of which are currently well understood. The CFCs in the 80's and 90's taught us some lessons.

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Happy to provide receipts. Note that this is a log scale, which makes things appear even less alarming than they are. We literally don’t know what the atmospheric impacts will be, and there is uncontrolled global experiment about to unfold, led by Elon.

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Indeed. As an astrophysicist I am well aware 😊. But satellite vaporization will be well above “natural” levels of the elements in question.

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

The newly released UAP files say more about us than aliens. kelseyjohnson367.substack.com/p/the-truth-... ✨🧪🔭👽

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Scientific progress is built by people doing unglamorous work because they believe knowledge and evidence matter. The #NSB does its work quietly, competently, and far from the spotlight or political headlines—three qualities that have become oddly unfashionable in modern governance. ✨🔭🧪🚀

open.substack.com

America’s Bold New Innovation Strategy: Fire the Adults in the Room

Firing the National Science Board is latest step in America’s growing contempt for expertise

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Has terra nullius ever bothered you? Me too! One of the quiet assumptions of modern life is that empty things are available things. That logic shaped colonialism, environmental destruction, and now how we talk about the Moon and Mars. I'd love for you to read my new essay. ✨🔭🚀🧪

kelseyjohnson367.substack.com

We Keep Mistaking Empty for Available

Why the Moon, Mars, and the natural world may deserve more than utilitarian math

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

My sense is that the overwhelming majority of people don't understand what the Artemis mission was really about, which is not space exploration but space exploitation. I've started up a Substack account and written a piece that isn't behind a paywall that I hope you will read and think about. 🚀✨🔭

open.substack.com

The Shadow of Artemis

The mission was inspiring. What it sets in motion should give us pause.

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Lots of people asking me about #Artemis. As an astronomer who thinks a lot about humanity’s future in the universe, I’ll be blunt: We've no business advancing our footprint in space until we behave responsibly on Earth. The Manifest Destiny framing of space exploration drips with unchecked hubris.

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Poe’s Law in action. XKCD FTW. ✨🔭🧪

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Nothing makes me more unreasonably proud than figuring out something new in Excel. Today it was how to insert a line break, and it feels like I’ve unlocked a new mystical power.

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

My daughter’s school went on lockdown today because… cows. 🐮🐮🐮 Can we go back to having lockdowns for lovely reasons like livestock that broke out of their pasture? I’m good with that.

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Dusted off and connected our old Wii. OMG it is so fun and nostalgic. I am cursing Nintendo for discontinuing this amazing platform (now over a decade ago).

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Doing my mandatory emergency training. I love my coffee as much as anyone, but I think I might set down the mug in this situation. Or maybe it makes a better weapon than I realize?

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

In my local FB marketplace right now.

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Oh this is rich. Should we be expecting Trump to go after governor Abbott and take over the state with 1000s of ICE agents?

fox4news.com

48 Texans charged in nationwide $14.6 billion healthcare fraud takedown

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

I once had a student who believed the Earth is flat. The mental gymnastics she had to do to maintain her belief were bonkers, but no one got hurt.

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