Satellite collision avoidance, designed to be acted on

Space Guardian sells automated collision avoidance to satellite operators. The system predicts conjunction risk, calculates the avoidance maneuver, and coordinates it between two operators through a bidding mechanism, so only one satellite has to burn fuel. The company came out of the 8th CASSINI Hackathon, where it placed first in Challenge 3, Orbital Security, in a field of 110 submitted projects. It then had to turn that result into something an operator would trust with hardware in orbit. That meant two audiences and one identity. The website had to make an automated system credible to flight-dynamics engineers who are accountable for equipment they cannot repair, and legible to the agencies and programme reviewers deciding whether the company reaches the next stage. The web app had the narrower and harder job: show an operator why a maneuver is being proposed, what it costs in fuel, and what follows if they decline. One disclosure. The studio holds an operating role at Space Guardian, so this was not an arms-length engagement, and Luka Zlatečan's quote below is a colleague's rather than an outside reference. Read it that way.