Space situational awareness (SSA) has come a long way since the early days of the space race. In the beginning, SSA was a relatively simple affair, with only a handful of objects in orbit that needed to be tracked. However, as the number of objects in space has increased and the complexity of the space […]
Space surveillance and tracking (SST) refers to the ability to detect, track, and identify objects in space. Furthermore, it deals with understanding the relationships between these objects. It is a critical capability that is essential for the safe and responsible use of space and the protection of space-based assets. In 2023, there will continue […]
As the new space industry continues to grow and evolve, satellite operations are becoming an increasingly important part of the equation. Therefore a satellite operations concept is a key component of every organization building and operating satellites with the vision of making new space affordable and accessible to customers. Furthermore, it outlines the strategies and […]
The space industry is growing inexorably, never before have so many satellites been launched, never before has access to space been easier – but our Earth orbits are currently in the Wild West. How can we (still) counteract this? 4,700 active satellites orbit our Earth at speeds of up to 7.8 km per second. Mega-constellations […]
In the last few years, the launch of several satellite mega-constellations has been announced, which will place thousands of satellites in the already crowded Low Earth Orbit. In this context, collision avoidance manoeuvres (CAM) are essential to protect both the space environment and the mission of the constellation. However, satellite constellations are usually bound to […]
GMS-T and OneWeb After OHB got a lot of attention when placing their GMS-T placeholder in close proximity to OneWeb’s constellation at the beginning of the month, we got curious and started to analyse the situation with publically availbale orbital data. Using TLEs we performed a screening of the close approaches over 2 week into […]
In one of our previous posts we demonstrated what kind of benefit a small NanoFEEP thruster can have in collision avoidance situations. We showed different scenarios how a satellite can increase the distance to potentially colliding objects using NanoFEEP. We showed that the thruster is able to perform such a manoeuvre and concluded that electrical […]
This week Jonas attended the “Start-up night Luft unf Raumfahrt” at the Federal Association of the German Aerospace Industry (BDLI) in Berlin. It was great to meet actors from the german ecosystem of space and show them the progress we made since our participation at Innospace Masters.
We at OKAPI:Orbits GmbH develop a smart Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) software called OKAPI, which can be used to analyze the interaction of single satellites with the whole space debris environment. With our partners from Morpheus Space, we used this software to assess the performance of their electrical propulsion system NanoFEEP for CubeSats. The […]
As one of the finalist in the innospace masters challenge, Jonas from OKAPI:Orbits had the chance to pitch our business idea in front of a great audience in Berlin. We are lucky to get the opportunity to pitch together with genius people with innovative ideas for the development of Space. In the ESA BIC challenge, […]