It’s no news to anyone that much of the pollution that reaches the Earth’s surface, oceans and atmosphere comes from economic systems that prioritize short-term profit over sustainability. Now, this sad reality has also reached orbital space, where more than 130 million pieces of debris orbit the Earth.
The worst thing is that this mountain of space trash, which increases exponentially every day, as satellite constellations — such as SpaceX’s Starlink — need to be constantly expanded and renewed. , but this process can take up to 10 years.
As around 90% of this uncontrolled traffic is concentrated in the so-called LEO (low Earth orbit) — with altitudes between 160 and 2 thousand km above the planet’s surface — the orbital speed of objects can reach 7-8 km/s (around 28,800 km/h), as in this region there is almost no atmospheric drag (air resistance).
To protect satellites and astronauts from impacts of this debris at hypersonic speeds — up to 20 times the speed of sound — a North American startup called Atomic-6 is proposing an innovative solution: Space Armor armor plates, made with a polymer composite developed through a confidential manufacturing process.
The company guarantees that its technology is lighter, thinner and more effective than traditional armor systems. In this sense, the great difference of the new “shields” is that they do not block or distort the signals of electromagnetic waves used in communications (radio, Wi-Fi, radar and satellite).
Risk of hypersonic collisions and need for new protections
In LEO, both space debris (pieces of broken satellites, screws, paint fragments) and active spacecraft (such as a 260 kg Starlink satellite or space station) move at hypersonic speeds. This causes even a millimeter screw to accumulate immense kinetic energy, due to its very high speed.
Therefore, this small piece of metal invisible to the naked eye can collide head-on with a satellite. An impact of this type can pierce fuel tanks (causing leaks or explosions), tear structural parts of the ship, damage batteries and electrical circuits, and even compromise life support systems, in the case of manned vehicles.
Since aerospace companies — such as SpaceX and Amazon’s Project Kuiper — plan to send more than 100,000 new spacecraft by 2030, compared to around 10,000 currently in orbit, regulatory agencies have demanded reinforcements in the protection of vehicles, to prevent the creation of more debris in space.
This demands the creation of new materials and space shields, as the form of shielding most used today — Whipple shields, invented in 1947 — despite being heavy and thick, does not block fragments larger than 1 cm and, as they are made of metals opaque to radiofrequency, .
Furthermore, their metallic composition creates a critical problem: when impacted, they fragment violently, launching secondary debris into space — often larger than the original projectile — that threatens other satellites and can damage the very system they are supposed to protect.
How to buy a Space Armor card at Atomic-6?
In an official statement, Atomic-6 presents the Space Armor plates as “the first radio frequency (RF) permeable orbital debris shield capable of resisting impacts and enabling mission-critical radio communications to and from the satellite they protect.” Additionally, they do not break or shatter when hit by debris.
Developed over a year and a half of research and testing, the product was manufactured with a secret polymer composite that mixes fibers and resins in undisclosed proportions. Self-adhesive, the plates measure 30 cm by 30 cm and 2.5 cm thick, and can be manufactured to order in sizes of up to 1 m by 1 m.
The armored plates are offered by the Atlanta (USA) company in two scalable versions, each available in a permeable or radio frequency blocking configuration — that is, allowing or blocking the passage of waves, depending on the mission’s needs.
The first version — Space Armor Lite — is lighter and was created to protect satellites against micro pieces of space debris up to 3 mm in diameter, which, although not trackable by ground-based radars and sensors, represent more than 90% of all fragments existing in low orbit (LEO).
Thicker, the Space Armor Max was developed: 12.5 mm in diameter. More resistant, this version is specifically aimed at protecting inhabited environments in space, such as space stations or orbital bases.
Although Atomic-6 is accepting quote requests for its Space Armor cards, there are no public prices published on the website or in press releases. In other words, the company only provides values upon demand and negotiation. This type of system is estimated by NASA between US$50 thousand and US$100 thousand per square meter.
