Goodness Gracious, Green Balls of Fire
5.5 minute read - After an encounter with a green ball of fire shooting across the sky over Marquette, MI, Communications Coordinator Liza Fust undertook writing a column breaking down some of the colors we see in space.
KMI Answers the Call for Sustainable Space Leadership
3.5 minute read - Corinne Moore and Maria Berishaj respond to Intelsat’s Call for Sustainable Leadership, exploring the efforts KMI undertakes to uphold the three pillars of Measure, Adapt, and Assess & Correct.
A Meal with a View: Space Food
4 minute read - Ever wonder what an astronaut eats in space? Spoiler alert, we’ve come a long way since the days of Tang! In today’s column, Corinne Moore examines the humble beginnings of space food and where we are today.
Xenon: Propellant of the Cosmos
5 minute read - What’s under the hood of a spacecraft? In today's column, Sam Cassidy delves into the technology propelling our spacecraft throughout the cosmos while looking to the future of KMI’s propulsion.
Space Questions for the Everyday - Volume I
5 minute read - Do you have burning questions about all things space? In this series, Corinne Moore answers common questions about this mysterious environment and welcomes your submissions for questions to be answered in the next issue. Contact us at questions@kallmorris.com and you just might see your question featured in our next issue.
Laws in Space
4 minute read - What are the rules for space? In today’s column, Maria Berishaj delves into what rules and regulations there are for space, the lack thereof, and the implications this may have for our society.
Water Bears IN SPACE
3 minute read - What are water bears and why do we care? In today’s column, Corinne Moore explains why the study of water bears is so important and how experimentation in space is a vital asset to furthering human knowledge.
Sports in Space
6 minute read - Want to play football on the moon? Or laser tag in zero gravity? While humanity currently has limited practice with sports in space, it is an interesting thought whether your favorites win or lose at the next game, and something Troy explores in the latest KMI column: Sports in Space.
Is Anybody Out There? Fermi’s Paradox and Alien Existence
5 minute read - If aliens exist, why haven’t we seen them? In today’s column, Maria Berishaj delves into this logical conflict known as Fermi’s Paradox, discussing the seemingly high likelihood of alien existence coupled with our lack of such discovery and possible explanations for it
Lost in Space-Based Navigation
3 minute read - How does one find their way in the vast expanse of space without getting lost? In today’s column, Corinne Moore explores how today’s technology allows us to navigate in space, while highlighting the reliance on methods we once used long before the advent of modern technology.
Space Film Junkie: Orbital Debris in Wall-E, Gravity, and Space Sweepers
5 minute read - It's starting to become a common trope in movies now, this orbital debris KMI keeps talking about. In today's column, Liza Fust, KMI Communications Coordinator, discusses what the movies Wall-E, Gravity, and Space Sweepers got right, got wrong, and predicted about orbital debris.
Space, Satellites, & Small Kids
7 minute read - In today’s column, Troy Morris, KMI Director of Operations, quickly summarizes and simplifies on the question, “how do satellites work.” Hint, it's a lot of hard work, hard work that deserves a chance to continue flying through the completion of their mission. Hard work that deserves a safer, lower-risk, debris-free environment, which is why we keep working on #KeepingSpaceClearForAll.
Traveling to Another Star
6 minute read - Thinking about distances in space on a grand cosmological scale involves nearly incomprehensible distances that are extremely difficult for the human mind to truly fathom. This is the concept that Austin Morris, KMI Director of Engineering, tackles in this week's KMI Column about Traveling to Another Star.
Two-Planet Economy
4 minute read - Most human megaprojects are undertaken for one of three reasons: for a religious purpose, a military advantage, or an economic benefit. Adam Kall, KMI Director of Technology, uses a lens of economic benefits to explore his favorite megaproject, colonizing space, specifically a two-planet economy.
Roscosmos, Rocketry, and the Return
6 minute read - In light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, many countries and companies have reevaluated their relationship with Russia and their rockets. While international sanctions and armed conflicts are ongoing, the history of human spaceflight continues, at times in awkward proximity to world political events. As Troy Morris discusses in this column, humanity has best succeeded with the shared goal of, “WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND.”
The Case for Orbital Industry
5 minute read - This column focuses on the challenge of volume cross-section as one of the difficulties and complexities of traveling to space. By first examining how the issue of launch volume cross-section is currently impacting space exploration, Adam Kall, KMI Director of Technology, discusses how orbital industry could be a solution.
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.
Why We Choose to Go to Space: Human Continuity
8 minute read - Over an unofficial series of grand perspective columns, Troy Morris, Director of Operations, has yet to tackle a common theme of certain space proponents: the survival of our species. Often referred to as space colonization, this view on survival is a macro view of humanity continuing on, rather than the more practical survival of individuals.
What Makes a Good Chart
5 minute read - A well-made chart can be an amazing way to convey a lot of information and associations in a short amount of time and a small amount of space. With the multifaceted aspects of orbital debris, KMI often uses charts to demonstrate massive amounts of information. The issue is in the abundance of very poorly made charts, which at best don’t convey much usable information and at worst purposefully mislead. Many articles have been written that go over examples of bad charts and why they are bad, but in this column, Adam Kall, Director of Technology, focuses on explaining ways to make charts more useful.
Solar Panels and Nuclear Spacecraft
5-minute read - A previous KMI column discussed various methods of propulsion and the respective “oomph” that each one has. Austin Morris, Director of Engineering, continues this topic by reviewing how spacecraft need to generate their own power in order to keep running and a few of the different ways to do that.