Expanding into Earth’s orbits to explore new ways of communication with loved ones who we have lost.

The passing-by of loved ones is hard to process. Can interplanetary thinking and design help us to process memory and loss?

In space everything is orbiting, similar to human memories. Sometimes it is far away, barely visible, then it comes close, magnifies, passes by and distances itself once more. Everything loops while slowly fading away.

In recent years the role of space is changing rapidly. It is being commercialised and for the very first time, private companies have the capacity to reach out into near Earth territories, mine asteroids and claim territories. Billionaires are racing to shoot up satellites, just to occupy an orbit they do not even have a use for, acting after the motto of “first come, first serve”.

In this age of space exploration, democratising the access to space is vital. Designing tools, stories and services for all of us will shape the way we think about space future. For all humans to be able to imaging their place in space and their personal usage for it, is what democratising outer space is about.

In 8 minutes the viewers are asked to look into the world of a boy who claims his mom was buried in a satellite.

Turning the story into a film. A big thank you to all the wonderful people involved.

The receiver-prop was made out of a rotating disk. The gradient on the disk indicates when the satellite will be in range for receiving signals.

Testing out different kinds of interfaces to interact with a technology which is physically orbiting the Earth.

A cube satellite operates normally in LEO, Low Earth Orbit. One full rotation takes about 2 hours. To put it in other words, every 2 hours the satellite passes over the same spot on Earth and becomes available for 4 – 15min. The animation above demonstrates how this technology could be intertwined with everyday life.

The initial story of Dear Satellite, goes:

My mother is buried in a satellite, with many others. She picked out the most memorable events in her life and saved it into K197 CubeSat. Since she passed away, I was able to listen to her talking twice a day when the satellite was passing over my head. Next week K197 will finally be pulled into the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up like a comet.