The project is a provocation.

It's art that is out of this world.

When it's launched into space, a sculpture will shine as brightly as a star.

The orbital reflector is a sculpture designed for low Earth orbit.

It's a small satellite about 10 centimeters by 10 centimeters by 30 centimeters that goes into a low Earth orbit. It's a small satellite about 10 centimeters by 10 centimeters by 30 centimeters

that goes into a low Earth orbit and opens up to become a large diamond-shaped mirror, about 100 feet long

and about five feet tall. But not everyone is looking at it in awe, especially astronomers.

The nighttime sky is filled with natural wonder and beauty, and it's not blank in any way, shape, or form.

So we need to be very careful how we treat this, the sky.

And back on Earth, a different art project calls attention to the growing problem of orbital debris.

People are always very surprised when I tell them that there are 100 million pieces of rubbish floating around Earth.

Guys, I've got to tell you, I think my spanchers escaped.

No. I got to tell you, I think my Spanches escaped. Low Earth orbit, home to around 1,700 functional satellites and hundreds of millions of pieces of space debris, has become an intersection of arts and science, rights and responsibilities.

I'm Ann Thompson and this is NBC on Earth.

Earthlings have been launching satellites into orbit for military and commercial purposes for decades.

Artist Trevor Pagland took 10 years to develop his sculpture, Orbital Reflector.

It's designed to collect sunlight and reflect it down to Earth and become visible in the night sky

as a kind of star about as bright as one of the stars in the Big Dipper where it will slowly

move across the sky and it will last about eight weeks and then burn up in the atmosphere as if it had never been there.

A satellite with no commercial or military purpose.

Challenging conventions about who gets to send what into space and why.

I started thinking about this project about 10 years ago.

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