Liza Fust
Liza Fust
The Legend of Laelaps

3 minute read - What's in a name? More than you might think. KMI's first spacecraft needed a title that not only symbolized its mission but also paid homage to the myths of old. After much debate, we landed on "Laelaps"—a name rooted in Greek legend. But what does a mythic hound, destined to catch everything it chases, have to do with space?

The Legend of Laelaps

Space Terms 3: An Intermediate Guide to Jargon

Space Terms 3: An Intermediate Guide to Jargon

5 minute read - Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to lay to rest any and all ignorance you may have ever had regarding jargon terms and acronyms used in the aerospace industry. Jokes aside, I intend for this installment to be a bit shorter than the previous, in the futile hope that it will make this one easier to digest. For those who read the entirety of the first two installments in the Space Terms series, I salute you. For those who finished those columns, saw this column, and then had the audacity to open it up and give it a read, I thank you. Today we take another step on our journey of understanding the complex terms that define science and technology in the aerospace industry.

Love, Death, and Terminal Velocity

Love, Death, and Terminal Velocity

4 minute read - While working on the long mission of preventing massive orbital disasters, with components moving at 7,500 m/s, considering time is a common occurrence. There are a few things in life that bring the human experience to move at incredible speeds, yet leave us feeling incredibly still. The list of these unique experiences may be longer than will be discussed here, but three of the most different examples are of varying frequency in an average lifetime: falling in love, falling from this mortal coil, and free-falling through the atmosphere (not even at re-entry speeds).

On a Pale Blue Dot

On a Pale Blue Dot

5 minute read - “Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us.” - Carl Sagan

This image, known as Pale Blue Dot, was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft on February 14th, 1990, at Carl Sagan’s suggestion. On the right side of the image suspended in a beam of sunlight is a single white pixel that is the Earth, seen from a distance farther than the orbit of Pluto at 4 billion miles. I always have strong emotions when I look at this image, read Carl Sagan’s accompanying statement, and take a moment to appreciate just what it represents. These emotions could be fear and anxiety, which would be perfectly understandable considering how fragile our home looks from such a distance, but for me they have become feelings of purpose and direction. This image does not make me think “Look how small and vulnerable we all seem,” but instead “Look how close we are to the start of our journey, and how much more there is to achieve.”

Space Terms 2: LEO, MEO, GEO, and HEO

Space Terms 2: LEO, MEO, GEO, and HEO

6 minute read - Space is big. As Douglas Adams put it so eloquently in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, space is really, really big. So let’s not talk about all of space right now, let’s just talk about the orbit of the Earth, which is still big. Let’s break it down and try to understand the different sections of Earth orbit and how they all play into the way that a satellite orbits.

First Footings in the Final Frontier

First Footings in the Final Frontier

4 minute read - Just as the success over frozen frontiers, unexplored jungles, endless seas, and even the famous imagery of the American West relied on hard people doing hard work, many forget the steps and support that made those areas of old exploration into the tourist destinations of today. From outposts and supply lines to small-town squares and starting-out shops, the areas under human expansion have been forged and founded in deliberate acts and minor decisions echoing over eons. Each piece of the puzzle is seemingly insignificant and the tasks to finalization insurmountable, yet through a shared societal dream, or singular ideals, humankind pushed forth into all areas listed at the beginning of this paragraph.

Space Traffic Management and Defense

Space Traffic Management and Defense

4 minute read - Activity in space has been growing steadily since the first satellite in 1957, but this rate is increasing dramatically as reduced launch costs enable constellations of hundreds and thousands of satellites to be launched quickly. The situation has become one of dangerous disregard for organization, as evidenced by an event on September 2nd, 2019 when the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Aeolus Earth observation satellite had to maneuver out of the way of a Starlink constellation satellite. When this potential collision was uncovered, the two operators struggled to communicate on what combined action should be taken, and while the end effect was thankfully safe, it could easily have resulted in disaster had both sides decided to do nothing.

Space Terms: A Beginner's Guide to Jargon

Space Terms: A Beginner's Guide to Jargon

6 minute read - If you’re reading this, you should know that I am going to miss something. This article is going to cover a lot, but it is pretty unlikely that it’ll cover everything. However, I’m hoping that this guide will be a good starting point for anyone who is trying to understand the concept of space and orbit but is getting buried in the specialized terms and acronyms and needs a little bit of help wading through the weeds.

Looking up into space, or down into the Ether?

Looking up into space, or down into the Ether?

3 minute read - Most people share in the imagery of many movies and stories by staring off into space. Whether the “space” around them is the endless nighttime setting of stars, or the watching of clouds coasting across a blue sky, all can recall a time spent in any of these pastimes observing “space”. In this human-centered experience, our society takes these views from our own perspective, which is why we often talk about outer space as “up there” or looking “up” into space. But is that all?