Orbital economy It is warming up, but the infrastructure that supports it is beginning to decline. Kayhan Space is a startup that makes sure your satellite doesn’t crash into another — or launch or space junk, for that matter — using state-of-the-art data crunching techniques and a web-accessible platform.
Kaihan made an appearance on Riot SF today as part of Battlefield, and the business is even bigger than when we first covered it. At that time they were raising the pre-seed round, but now they have got their legs under them.
Founded years ago by old friends Araz Feizi and Siamak Hessar, who came to America from Iran to study, the company is taking on a natural byproduct of the exponential rise in satellite penetration over the past decade: traffic.
Space may seem like a big place, but low Earth orbit is relatively crowded. With thousands of satellites zooming in on all kinds of trajectories, and tens of thousands of space junk as well, chances are your spacecraft will have to pull a bit to avoid a screeching 20,000 MPH or more. When orbits overlap to the point where a collision is likely, it’s called a “collision”—a more neutral term than “collision course.”
“There are a lot of satellite-to-satellite links; today it’s less than 10%, but that’s changing,” Feizi told TechCrunch. We will wait.”
What’s worse is not only the frequency, but also the time before a potentially dangerous event occurs. This lead time is critical, as last-minute moves can be hair-raising and waste fuel—what could have been avoided with a little pressure hours earlier becomes a longer emergency burn.
Normally, satellite operators report their position and orbit to Space Command – sounds impressive, but imagine a control tower at an airport suddenly growing to 10 times its normal size. They only do so much, they rely on operators who are very quick and dial up the latest data and changes.
With thousands of satellites in the sky, orbiting each other within hours or days – and deciding what to do with a phone call – is no longer a realistic option.
The Kaihan Space Pathfinder platform displays technical information on satellite links.
Kayhan is working to automate the process as much as possible using the new information available. Some of that is government-maintained high-accuracy object databases, yes, but there are other sources of tracking, too, and real-time data from customers and anyone else available. Their Pathfinder platform offers situational awareness, junction warnings, recommended new orbits – if you have the right thrust, it even provides thrust.
“We use all this data, and we have developed a large number of proprietary algorithms and processes. For example, we have developed a sophisticated prediction engine that predicts the path of objects, which allows us to quickly calculate, simulate and re-simulate the movement of objects in space,” said Feizi.
Turnaround time for communication is measured in minutes rather than days, but it’s not something that’s been carefully thought out, Faizi continues:
“When you go on Pathfinder and see the recommendations prepared for you, you can be sure that they are safe – we checked them – and secondly, that it is suitable for you because it meets all the restrictions that you have: your pressure system, your ground connection.
He also emphasized that these capabilities are not limited to, for example, how fast a radar dish can rotate. Being a data-driven product, it can be measured arbitrarily. “The beauty of the software and the way we’ve designed our infrastructure is that it’s very scalable. We can onboard every satellite out there today and it won’t be a problem for us,” Faizi said.
Integrations with other satellite and mission management platforms are coming – not everyone wants to work with a new device, so the information is available through the SDK.
You may be wondering if playing fair data is a defense as a business. Feizi admits that others may well try a similar system, but Kaihan’s initiative and expertise should not be underestimated.
Today we have five PhDs in astrodynamics in our group. The amount of data we process and the amount of processing we do is overwhelming; “If it’s not for running these core skills effectively and efficiently, you won’t be able to achieve what we’re achieving,” he said. “If you have the data, the capital, the people, yes, maybe in two years, you can develop a platform – no one has done it yet, but where we will be in two years is very different from where we are today.”
In the meantime, Kayhan is expanding its capabilities to launch with a product it’s calling Gamut, intended to offer similar automated security checks.
Image Credits: Kayhan Space
Scheduling launches isn’t just about waiting for good weather—you have to thread the needle to put the payload in the right orbit and position, perhaps among dozens or hundreds of peers. As the number of satellites increases, the possibility of a rideshare mission hitting different orbits quickly becomes a more complex logistical problem. And the bottom line is, if you miss your launch window by a few minutes, you’ll need a new solution.
“We’ve developed a new method that uses GPU processing to quickly refine an order of magnitude,” said Feizi. This means launch companies can prepare for more events, and quickly hit the paperwork and other official processes that one must go through to send a rocket into space. Gamut is still in development and testing, but you can expect to hear more about it soon as they deploy their latest addition.
It’s clear that commercial activity in orbit is growing, and providing critical infrastructure could be the kind of play that puts Kaihan in the game for good.
