KMI Retrospective: Keweenaw Rocket Range
6 minute read - Before joining the team, KMI Communications Coordinator Liza Fust was also a freelance writer. Reprinted here with permission of Marquette Monthly magazine is a feature she wrote on the Keweenaw Rocket Range that launched the first rocket from Michigan to reach space in 1971. Much has changed with the state of Michigan’s aerospace industry since this article ran in 2019, read the column for a glimpse into the past and future of space of Michigan.
The Oomph of Different Engines
5 minute read - In today’s column Austin Morris, Director of Engineering, addresses different types of propulsion systems, what some of the trade-offs might be in selecting them, and compares the relative “oomph” of each system.
Discounting Our Future
7 minute read - The concept of removing space debris centers on paying a cost now to protect value in the future. Economists have dealt with solving this problem terrestrially for hundreds of years, and I’ll use the same approach for our space-based issue of debris. That problem, on which we base a solution, will be estimated at a nearly $50 billion annual risk to the industry, reaching its apex in 15 years time, due to space debris. The solution prevents this risk from existing, and the active debris removal portion of it should be pursued for up to $15,400 per kilogram of debris removed.
Why We Choose to Go to Space: Human Survival
5 minute read - An empty, unforgiving, uncompromising, and in almost-every-way hostile void. Why would anyone choose to go to space themselves?
Tyranny of the Rocket Equation
5 minute read - Modern space technology comes with many obstacles, the most difficult of which to overcome is gravity. Fortunately, our knight in shining armor is the humble rocket, which rides upon a steed of fire and smoke to defeat the gravitational tyrant. In today’s column, KMI Director of Engineering Austin Morris explains a bit about the concepts that lie beneath the Tyranny of the Rocket Equation.
Hooking the Sky
4.5 minute read - The current way humanity gets into space is highly expensive, and even worse, not great at bringing things back. Discussions about a space industry have an often unspoken clause, that if we do achieve orbital manufacturing or asteroid mining, it would be expensive and difficult to get those goods back to Earth for use by the average person or industry. The main problem is that it takes a lot of speed to get into Earth orbit, plus a lot more to go farther, and you need to slow down a lot before returning to Earth if you don’t want to end up as barbeque. However, there is an exciting exploit of the universe that may help us change this whole dynamic, and really start to connect the people and industries of Earth with the rest of the solar system, known as the skyhook.
Why We Choose to Go to Space: Human Imagination
3 minute read - Why We Choose to Go to Space: Human Imagination. Whether fantastical fiction, scientific speculation, admirable announcements, or factual mission reporting, the advancing reality of all science, especially space science, plays into and from imagination with ease. It is from an initial foundation of imagination that many technologies are dreamed in science fiction, discussed by interested organizations, pursued by inspired scientists, and made possible through continued development, until the technology enters the world as a banal fact.
Reentry and Ionized Plasma
6 minute read - In previous columns, we have discussed some common misconceptions regarding orbit, notably the concept that achieving orbit is difficult not because it involves a lot of vertical velocity, but because it involves a lot of horizontal velocity. Specifically, achieving orbit typically takes something like 30 times more energy applied horizontally than vertically. This is an important dichotomy to realize for numerous reasons.
Orbits and the Cow that Jumped Over the Moon
6 minute read - You know that nursery rhyme about the cow that jumped over the moon? Have you ever thought to yourself, “Now, how could a cow jump over the moon, and whatever gave Mother Goose that idea anyway?” Well, the KMI team is here to help with that answer.
Relativity and Perspective
6 minute read - The concepts of relativity and time dilation are not simple topics that can be explained fully in a single blog post. That doesn’t mean the initial concepts are out of reach, or that we can’t learn something by changing the perspective from which we view a problem.
To LEO and Back Again
4 minute read - In my previous column, The Sky is Falling and That’s Okay, I discussed the fact that there is an average of one orbital object that reenters Earth’s atmosphere every day. I also described why it is typically better for these objects to reenter than to stay in orbit, to ensure that they burn away into nothingness and cause no risk of damage to other objects. This is because the enormous amount of air friction that is encountered when entering the atmosphere at orbital speeds creates such an unbearable amount of heat that very few objects can survive it long enough to slow down and descend to the surface.
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.
No Borders in Space
4 minute read - Most astronauts remark that, once they get into space, the divisions on Earth become far less apparent and it really looks like one whole of humanity. This viewpoint is for a variety of reasons. Possibly because things like border walls and crossing checkpoints are too thin to be viewable from space, or that the land isn’t conveniently colored like the maps and globes we grew up seeing in school. I would add another reason to the list, and that is that because of orbital dynamics it is not possible to effectively secure a region of space as belonging to any one country.
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.
Space Terms 5: Some Jargon, Some Relativity
7 minute read - Today we begin our journey on what is currently the last planned installment in the Space Terms series. In this entry we will look at how objects in space move through their orbits and how those orbits can be changed by executing different spacecraft maneuvers. We will also get into some of the specific terms that cross my mind and desk daily as we theorize and work with others in planning the future of humanity in space.
Ascension to Space
4 minute read - As the least technical among my co-founders, I am often given, and other times take on myself, the opportunity to explain scientific principles or engineering processes in an approachable way. This works in numerous experiences, but in select examples answering things in an “easier” way is the harder task. Paramount among these is a large question, often looming over energetic discussions of space, from the merely interested to those most expert: “Why should we go to space?”
Speed is King
5 minute read - The operating environment of space requires speeds and forces that boggle the mind, but before we discuss speed in space we have to look at the steps taken to reach such achievements.
Space Terms 4: What’s your Inclination?
7 minute read - In previous installments of this series, I have briefly touched on Keplerian elements such as inclination and eccentricity of orbits, but have avoided diving deep into them. The time has now come to rectify that, as we try to begin comprehending the six Keplerian elements (named after Johannes Kepler) and how they define an orbit.
Space Front & the Home Front: Technology for our Lives
6 minute read - “Space is for everybody. It’s not just for a few people in science or math, or for a select group of astronauts.” Christa McAuliffe, American educator and astronaut aboard the ill-fated Challenger. In her time moving from the front of the classroom to the forefront of scientific endeavor, Ms. McAuliffe demonstrated an eager appetite for all that space could offer. Her spirit has been shared by many in the field, offering insight into how space works, sharing awe-inspiring images of the cosmos, and even opening up the engineered innovations of aerospace to the greater public.
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.