Kayhan Space: Satellite Air Traffic Control

Kayhan Space, a company with locations in Boulder, Colorado, and Atlanta, Georgia, and a graduate of Techstars’ virtual space accelerator program, aims to function as the air traffic control system for satellites orbiting Earth.

The company was established by two longtime friends, Araz Feyzi and Siamak Hesar, who both originally hail from Iran and pursued their higher education in the United States. Kayhan Space is addressing a significant challenge facing the space industry in the years ahead – effectively managing the rapidly increasing number of objects in outer space.

Currently, approximately 8,000 satellites are in orbit around the planet. However, this number is poised to grow substantially, with Amazon planning to deploy 3,236 satellites for its Kuiper Network, and SpaceX having filed plans to launch as many as 30,000 satellites. This represents a considerable amount of orbiting hardware.

Ensuring these satellites do not collide with one another is crucial, as space debris presents its own set of complications.

Feyzi and Hesar possess a complementary skillset ideally suited to tackling this issue.

Hesar, the company’s co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, has dedicated years to the study of space exploration, earning a master’s degree in aeronautics from the University of Southern California and a doctoral degree in astronautical engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He gained experience through an internship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and subsequently spent three years with Colorado-based companies specializing in satellite situational awareness and systems control, namely SpaceNav and Blue Canyon Technologies.

Feyzi, meanwhile, is an experienced entrepreneur who previously co-founded Syfer, a company based in the Atlanta region that focused on securing internet-connected consumer devices. By combining Hesar’s unique algorithms, developed during his doctoral research at UC Boulder, with Feyzi’s proficiency in cloud computing, the company has created a system capable of forecasting potential satellite collisions and providing satellite network operators with alerts and suggested alternative trajectories to prevent accidents.

The founders emphasize that this problem cannot be resolved through satellite automation alone, due to the inherent complexity and multi-faceted nature of the task. “Consider a scenario where a U.S. commercial satellite is on a projected course to impact a Russian military satellite,” Feyzi explained. “Which satellite should adjust its path? We ensure the satellite operator has access to all relevant information, [including] details about the impending collision and a range of options for avoiding it.”

Current satellites lack the ability to fully perceive their surroundings, and complete autonomy cannot address issues involving geopolitical factors and unmanaged space debris, all of which necessitate human oversight, according to the founders.

“The situation is currently too intricate to resolve automatically, and due to the absence of standardized policies and international cooperation… human input is essential,” Hesar stated.

Furthermore, should satellites in the future be equipped with sensors to enhance autonomous collision avoidance, Kayhan Space already has the algorithms to support that functionality. “Whether considering the system, the sensors, the decision-making process, and [the controls for] actually implementing that action… we provide that capability,” Hesar said. “Our algorithm is applicable regardless of whether ground-based or space-based sensors are utilized.”

The space situational market is projected to reach $3.9 billion over the next eight years, and few companies are positioned to deliver the type of traffic management systems that satellite network operators will require, the founders believe.

Their proposal proved persuasive enough to secure acceptance into the Techstars Allied Space Accelerator, an early-stage investment and mentorship program jointly developed by Techstars and the U.S. Air Force, the Netherlands Ministry of Defence, the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, and the Norwegian Space Agency. Additionally, as initially reported by Hypeotamus, the company has successfully raised $600,000 in pre-seed funding from investors, including Overline, an Atlanta-based pre-seed investment firm, to facilitate business expansion.

The company acknowledges that financial resources and technological advancements alone are insufficient to solve the problem.

“We are confident that technology can be a significant aid, but it cannot fully resolve this challenge. We need the United States to assume a leadership role [in establishing policy] on a global scale,” Feyzi said. “Unlike airspace… which is regulated by individual countries, space remains largely unregulated.” Hesar concurred. “There must be a concentrated effort dedicated to addressing this issue.”