Kessler

Our goal is to reduce the risk of losing vital infrastructure in space that we depend on in our daily lives. Our student-led project over the next year and a half is to build, test and launch a small satellite (called a CubeSAT) which will prove the feasibility of a lightweight, inexpensive and never-done-before solution to the growing problem of space junk in Earth's orbit. Here at Kessler, we are driven by a single goal: to do our part in ensuring that humanity can sustainably utilise Earth’s orbit far into the future. With launch providers such as SpaceX, NASA and even our very own RocketLab making launching into space cheaper and more accessible, the level of space junk and debris in orbit is rising at an accelerating rate. We aim to provide satellite manufacturers with an innovative de-orbiting device called an electrodynamic tether, that significantly reduces the cost of de-orbiting and mitigates the risk of satellites becoming space junk. After putting forward our business case and preliminary design report in early 2018, we won the CubeSAT 2018 challenge set out by the Auckland Program for Space Systems. We have secured funding, and plan to launch with RocketLab in late 2019! Want to learn more? Visit our webpage to find out more about our mission and how you can get involved.