4 minute read: Tow Trucks and Tug Boats in Space, Oh My! There are several examples on Earth that illustrate the need for different types of in-space services. It’s clear that more options for specialization lead to overall efficiency.
How Spacecraft Currently Avoid Debris
4.5 minute read - In humanity's pursuit of progress, one thing often lingers in our wake: debris. Just like Earth, space is littered with the remnants of past missions—from rocket bodies to tool bags hurtling through our orbits at 17,000 mph. What happens when all this space junk poses a serious threat to active satellites, spacecraft, or even the ISS?
ISS Debris Avoidance over the Years
Space Film Junkie: Orbital Debris in Wall-E, Gravity, and Space Sweepers
What Can We Do with Orbital Debris?
5 minute read - One of the most common questions that we at KMI get when people are first introduced to our business of orbital debris remediation is what do we plan to do once we have captured a piece of debris. The answer is that there are several possibilities, some more likely than others and some more exciting than others. The goal of this column is to explain some of the potential solutions to this problem and why each one is or is not viable.
ADR and Adversity
5 minute read - Active Debris Removal (ADR) involves many concepts, terms, and technical aspects. These encompass sterile standards of scientific discussion, as well as advantageous assets and deceitful disadvantages. As KMI columns attempt to illuminate on the issues of our industry and relate them to the larger human experience, introspection is necessary at times to ensure a clearer outlook to come, even if it begins as a critical inspection of these technical pieces.
The Sky is Falling and That’s Okay
3 minute read - There has been a lot of attention recently on objects in space returning to the Earth, especially with several noteworthy reentries in the last few months. Yet what hasn’t been discussed much recently is the fact that orbital reentries are much more common than you probably think. Though it may sound like cause for fright, there is an average of one tracked orbital object that reenters the Earth’s atmosphere every single day. The reality is that, more often than not, an object reentering the atmosphere is a good thing because it is one fewer object in space.
Why We Can’t “Just Blow It Up”
4 minute read - In Netflix's "Space Force" a repeated comedic element is the militaristic advice to solve a problem through explosives, to the chagrin of the nearby scientists. This column details how truly terrible this suggestion would be particularly as it pertains to space. When considering the use of explosions to deal with space debris, having more energy in a smaller object is a combination worse together than the sum of its parts. Prior to an explosion, there would be a single trackable object with a determined path, so it could be calculated whether that path collided with something else, and how to move out of the way or prepare for it.