Humanity gains insight on how to operate in space with every satellite that we launch. True learning comes from doing; otherwise we lock into lab-born biases that come from asking the wrong questions. I think we are running into that limit with micrometeoroid and orbital debris (MMOD) collisions, and we are close to an industry-wide shift in how MMOD risk is considered and mitigated on future missions.

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Trevor Smith is the president and CEO of Atomic-6.