Milano Digital Week 2026 · STEP FuturAbility District

Zathura

An interactive journey through Earth’s increasingly crowded orbit — a data visualisation, website and short film about the debris we leave in space, and why it matters down here.

My role: Project lead — UX research, website design & build, data visualisation, sound design
Format: Interactive website · Data visualisation · Short film
Live site: projectzathura.figma.site ↗

Aleksandra pointing at the globe on Zathura’s video wall at STEP FuturAbility District

Case study Project description Research, concept and the seven chapters of the website. The event Milano Digital Week How we presented Zathura at STEP, and how people joined in.

Case study

Visit website ↗

Space is not the problem: we rely on it every day for GPS, internet, weather, phone networks and emergency services.

What we leave in orbit is: old satellites, spent rocket parts and fragments from past collisions are filling up Earth's orbit.

Desk research: ESA data shows 1.2 million debris objects larger than 1 cm and 140 million fragments between 1 mm and 1 cm.

Survey: 100% use a satellite-dependent service daily, about 15% think debris disappears on its own, 78.1% had never heard of Kessler Syndrome.

Key insights: we rely on satellites but rarely think about them; “space junk” makes the problem sound harmless; untracked pieces are the biggest danger.

How might we help people understand what's at risk above them, and turn complex orbital data into something they can see and remember?

Objectives: show what's really up there with real tracking data, and make it personal by linking satellites to everyday services.

Zathura: an interactive journey through Earth's increasingly crowded orbit.

The Zathura website, projectzathura.figma.site.

We're Zathura: an interactive website showing how crowded Earth's orbit has become, and why it matters down here.

Structure of the experience: See, Understand, Realise — from data to experience.

Chapter 1, The Shroud Above: a 3D globe surrounded by debris with three key numbers.

Chapter 2, The Invisible Swarm: magenta dots for the 500,000+ fragments too small to track.

Chapter 3, The Wake-up Call: replaying the 2009 Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251 collision step by step.

Chapter 4, Blind Stakeholders: pick a service like GPS or weather and see the satellites behind it.

Chapter 5, Redefining Kessler Syndrome: a timeline from Sputnik in 1957 to a projected tipping point in 2050.

Chapter 6, Language Reframe: clearer alternatives to “space junk”, and three things to push for — track, regulate, reframe.

Chapter 7, Immersive View: a full-screen debris field to drag and zoom, using NASA ODPO, ESA SSA and CelesTrak data.

What if we lose the sky? A 52-second short film showing an orbit tipping into cascade.

Ready to see what's really above us? Visit projectzathura.figma.site.

Milano Digital Week

STEP FuturAbility District, Milan · October 2026

Milano Digital Week is Milan’s yearly festival of digital culture. For the 2026 edition we brought Zathura to STEP FuturAbility District and gave it a whole wall.

A walk along the wall at STEP.

What we presented

Zathura ran across STEP’s video wall as one continuous story. The website’s chapters sat side by side — the debris field, the 2009 collision replayed, the Kessler chain reaction, and Blind Stakeholders, which links satellites to the services people use every day. From a distance you get the scale; step closer and you get the detail.

How people joined in

We stayed by the wall and talked people through it. The easiest way in was something everyone uses — maps, messages, the weather — and then showing the satellites behind it. Most visitors had never heard of Kessler Syndrome, so watching one collision spread into rings around Earth usually started the best conversations. We closed with a short talk on what can change: better tracking, regulation, and the words we use.

The full wall: the debris field, “The first accident of its kind”, the orbit view and Blind Stakeholders.

Aleksandra and her teammates at the Zathura wall. — Me and my teammates at the wall.

The Shroud Above — where the story starts.

Aleksandra presenting Zathura with a microphone. — Talking through the project and what can change.

Two satellites, one point: the 2009 Iridium–Kosmos collision.

Kessler Syndrome: one collision feeding the next.

Curious about the full experience?

This is the loop exactly as it ran on the wall at STEP, start to finish — about three and a half minutes.

The full wall loop. Best watched full screen.