Earth’s orbit is so populated that the space industry is now developing technologies to remove space debris caused by satellites from an over-crowded low Earth orbit (
LEO).
One untapped orbit above Earth does exist, though. The so-called very low Earth orbit (
VLEO) would allow satellites to fly in a less crowded space closer to home and take more detailed pictures of our planet.
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Could air-breathing technology unlock unlimited propellant for satellites?
Naturally, given the great potential of this project for low-cost satellite operations that will enable more detailed imaging, it has garnered attention from the US government. In fact, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (
DARPA) has already provided $400,000 of an anticipated $1 million grant for the project.
The GWU and PPPL teams aren’t the only ones researching air-breathing satellite technology. In an interview with IE in 2022, Jan Mataró, CTO of Spanish company Kreios Space, explained that “right now, very low Earth orbit is an unused orbit simply because of the lack of propulsion systems capable of staying in this orbit. But it could allow for a huge increase in the resolution for both telecommunications and Earth observation.”
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