Kessler@home is a volunteer computing project studying the long-term stability of low Earth orbit. In 1978, NASA scientists Donald Kessler and Burton Cour-Palais described how collisions between objects in orbit could create debris faster than the atmosphere removes it, setting off a self-sustaining cascade now known as the Kessler syndrome.
Your computer will simulate complete 200-year futures of the orbital environment: launches, satellite failures, collisions, and the debris clouds they produce. Running hundreds of these futures for each of more than 200,000 scenarios, covering launch traffic, the planned megaconstellations, disposal reliability, debris removal and the changing atmosphere, lets us estimate how likely a runaway cascade is and when it would come, not just what the average future looks like.
Propagate the orbits of tens of thousands of satellites, rocket bodies, and debris fragments for two centuries, including atmospheric drag and the solar cycle.
Roll the dice on which objects collide, how each collision breaks apart, and which satellites fail to dispose of themselves. Every run is a different possible future.
Send back a compact summary. Our server combines millions of them into maps of where low Earth orbit stays stable and where it tips into runaway.
Once Kessler@home launches, a volunteer will be featured here each day.
29 Oct 2026
The science application now runs full 200-year futures from the real October 2026 catalog, reproduces the agencies' 2009 comparison study, and has been checked against six real debris clouds. Next come the final model checks, then the server side that hands out work. Join to hear when the project opens to volunteers.