How Astrae Technologies Solves the Problem of Space Debris.
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Satellites play a key role in modern civilization, but they are under a critical threat. This threat is 18 million pounds of dead satellites, boosters, and general debris. Throughout the past few months, my team and I have tackled this problem through our moonshot project!
What is a MOONSHOT?
A moonshot project is a four week challenge to create a company from the ground up. The company must fit a few categories: solve a problem, be technologically feasible in around 2–10 years, and be profitable.
For me personally, this has been my moonshot company Astrae (visit us here). Astrae is a company that aims to create drones to clean up space debris. The goal in this is to make room for new satellites or allow for lower-risk operation to pre-existing satellites.
What’s the PROBLEM?
The problem is space debris. 18,000,000 pounds of it to be exact. Not only does this pose a colossal risk to pre-existing satellites, but new ones too. Unfortunately, this problem isn’t new or far in the future, it’s happening now. Actually, a recently planned NOAA satellite had to be cancelled due to a 26% percent fail rate from space debris alone! Another example of this the threat that space debris poses is in 2018, astronauts at the ISS had to patch a leak due to debris impact with duct tape, gloves, and their fingers. That’s insane… a multibillion-dollar space station, having to be patched by things that can be found in a convenience store. However, space debris isn’t showing any signs of slowing. Actually, it’s growing, and at an unprecedented rate.
This graph here shows the predicted amount of major collisions as of 1999 in the time period of 1995–2005. However, in 1999, there were only 600 operational satellites. Meanwhile, in 2019, there were around 1,000 operational satellites in orbit, and 95 new ones were launched. While this number might be seen as large, according to announced plans, it is predicted that 1,145 satellites might be launched per YEAR by 2025! That’s astounding and creates an even bigger urge to act on this problem.
What is OUR solution?
Our solution is the Hive ecosystem. The Hive ecosystem is a revolutionary product line that consists of two modules that work in unison to achieve a task. We call these the Bee and the Hive.
The Bee, seen here, is the workers module. It travels on the Hive. It does so by connecting to the Hive and then the Hive transports it to where it needs to be. Once at its destination, the Bee disconnects from the Hive and carries out its task by using one or more of it’s tools. Once it’s task is completed, the Bee reconnects to the Hive and then moves all of the contents from it’s cargo bay to the Hive’s cargo bay. This process and movement and recollection repeats until the Hive’s cargo bay is full. Once this happens, the following “resupply” occurs:
- An empty Hive is sent into space to rendezvous with the current Hive module.
- Once rendezvoused, first the Bee’s migrate to the new Hive.
- Once migrated, the new empty Hive resumes normal operations in place of the full Hive.
- Meanwhile, the full Hive re-enter’s Earth’s atmosphere to be processed and if needed refurbished at one of our facilities.
This process repeats until the products have run their life cycle. That’s what makes our product so unique. Our company aims for our service to be reusable for two main reasons: to be more cost and environmentally friendly. Collectively, this allows us to have lower operating costs while caring for our home, Earth.
Who are we?
Astrae is an aerospace company that aims to create an environment for sustainable development in Earth’s orbit. We aim to do so through our Hive ecosystem. We are committed to Earth and the ways that we can help improve peoples lives, companies profits, and the future of mankind.
Thank you for reading! If you have any questions, concerns, or interests:
Visit us at www.astraetech.com!
Email us at info@astraetech.com!
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