Getting Started

I was having breakfast with a group of (nerdy, engineering, scientific) friends one morning at the Voyager Cafe at the Mojave Air and Space Port when Leah mentioned using old iPhones for unpiloted aircraft navigation. The man she was speaking with, Al, agreed that the gyroscopic capability and GPS features could definitely be used. Sitting between them, I asked whether this same technology could be used in space. The consensus was that, if the iPhone is placed in a pressurized container, why not?

Then came the inevitable question: What would you use an iPhone on to navigate in space? 

I took this as an invitation to spew forth an idea I have been working on for years: use swarms of small "space tractors" to clean up orbital debris, land it on the moon, and recycle it for future use. Only my description to them was not this succinct and was probably full of "colorful metaphors."

Al asked me very seriously where I was doing this work. I laughed, "In my head." But that conversation planted a seed. If this super smart scientist thought it was a good idea and was curious about my work, maybe it really was a good idea.

So, I ran the idea by my mentor a couple of weeks later, who also thought it was a really good idea. He encouraged me to apply for an SBIR and gave more guidance on funding options. Wow! A fire ignited in my belly.

I have never felt so supported in a crazy idea in all of my life. Two people I deeply respect, and the universe, were all telling me that this is something worth doing. And why not? Somebody has to. Might as well be me.