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Atomic-6 conducted on-the-ground testing of its orbital shield tiles. Credit: Atomic-6 <\/p>\nGeorgia-based startup Atomic-6 has come up with a new solution to safeguard spacecraft, satellites, and astronauts from high-speed debris strikes. The company\u2019s Space Armor tiles are being prepped for the first in-orbit demonstration on board an upcoming SpaceX mission this year, promising a lighter, stronger alternative to the 1940s tech currently being used.<\/p>\n
Portal Space Systems has chosen Space Armor as the micrometeoroid and orbital debris protection for its spacecraft, launching on SpaceX\u2019s Transporter-18 mission in October, Atomic-6 announced today. The spacecraft will be the first to be outfitted with the company\u2019s protective tiles, marking a much-needed shift away from age-old technology as the growing problem of space debris threatens precious hardware in Earth orbit.<\/p>\n
\u201cFive years ago, we didn\u2019t have [thousands] of satellites flying around, we didn\u2019t have that activity,\u201d Atomic-6 CEO Trevor Smith told Gizmodo. \u201cNecessity is the mother of invention, and because this has become a problem, you will now see more and more of these types of protections.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suit of armor <\/p>\n
Atomic-6 developed its Space Armor tiles under a $1.2 million Small Business Innovation Research grant funded by the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force. The objective was to develop a new type of space debris shielding.<\/p>\n
Most spacecraft currently rely on the Whipple shield, developed in the 1940s by astronomer Fred Whipple. The Whipple shield is reasonably effective, but the market is in need of a modern alternative that can handle the stress of a growing space industry littering Earth orbit with metallic junk.<\/p>\n
Unlike traditional orbital shields, Space Armor tiles aren\u2019t made from metal. The tiles are also much more compact, measuring less than an inch thick\u2014around 15% thinner than the Whipple aluminum shields.<\/p>\n
Atomic-6 conducted on-the-ground testing of its orbital shield tiles. Credit: Atomic-6 <\/p>\n
The most striking difference, however, is that Space Armor is specially designed to avoid creating any secondary orbital debris. \u201cWhen a Whipple shield gets hit, there is a lot of metal ejected from that impact, so actually causing more debris than the original projectile coming in,\u201d Smith said. \u201cOur shield not only stops the projectile, but also minimizes that secondary debris creation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company has come up with two variants of its tiles. Space Armor Lite is designed to stop particles 3 millimeters or less in diameter, while Space Armor Max can withstand impact from debris up to 12.5 millimeters in diameter.<\/p>\n
The majority of space debris in low Earth orbit is about 3 millimeters in size. With particles this tiny, moving at high speeds through space, the debris cannot be tracked ahead of a possible impact. That means orbiting spacecraft can\u2019t perform maneuvers to avoid the incoming impact.<\/p>\n
That type of impact often goes unnoticed, but it can cause damage. In November 2025, China\u2019s Shenzhou-20 spacecraft was struck by a small piece of debris<\/a>\u00a0suspected to be around 1 millimeter wide. Although tiny, the impact caused enough damage to prevent the crew of astronauts from boarding the spacecraft<\/a> for their return to Earth.<\/p>\n Space Armor is \u201cdesigned to protect from the unknown,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n Space test <\/p>\n Atomic-6 has tested the Space Armor tiles on the ground, but the upcoming mission will provide the first opportunity to see how they behave in the space environment.<\/p>\n Portal Space Systems will be pointing a camera on the tiles placed on its spacecraft to verify the new technology. \u201cMy hope is they actually get struck, but get struck in the tile, and we get it on camera,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThen they actually can look at the telemetry of the satellite and confirm that no systems were damaged, but you can visually see that impact strike on the tile, and that is really the only way we\u2019ll know for sure if it works.\u201d<\/p>\n Following the verification of the tiles, Atomic-6 is hoping to expand on its applications. Space Armor can also be applied to astronaut suits to protect astronauts during spacewalks, as well as to orbiting space stations. Atomic-6 has also been approached by lunar infrastructure companies to build protective boxes for payloads destined for the Moon.<\/p>\n \u201cSo once Space Armor has gone through qualifications, we actually would be able to protect human-rated spacecraft and private space stations,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Georgia-based startup Atomic-6 has come up with a new solution to safeguard spacecraft, satellites, and astronauts from high-speed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[3631,13540,79,193,7574],"class_list":{"0":"post-409036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-international-space-station","9":"tag-satellites","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space","12":"tag-space-debris"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Hvi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/HVI-Qualification-Impact.jpg\")
Space Armor tiles impact test. Credit: Atomic-6 <\/p>\n