Most things in space tumble. Almost nothing can catch them.

The problem

Real targets often spin faster than rigid capture can handle.

Rigid capture systems need a target that’s nearly still — they top out around three to five degrees per second. Recently failed satellites typically tumble at three to eight degrees per second. Long-derelict objects reach tens of degrees per second, and a target’s rate is neither knowable in advance nor stable.

It isn’t just the grapple.

The ceiling isn’t set by the capture mechanism alone. At contact, a tumbling target’s angular momentum transfers into the capturing spacecraft, and its attitude determination and control system (ADCS) — the reaction wheels and thrusters that keep it pointed — has to absorb it. Reaction wheels hold a finite amount of momentum. Against a heavy, fast-tumbling target they saturate, and the spacecraft either burns propellant to recover or loses control of its own orientation.

Our system doesn’t match the spin. It removes it.

Why it matters

Capture comes first.

Servicing, debris removal, and relocation all start the same way: taking hold of an object that was never designed to be caught. Most of what’s in orbit has no grapple fixture and no docking interface. Until an object is stable, nothing else can happen to it.

The same step sits at the center of asteroid resources.

A 2012 feasibility study by the Keck Institute for Space Studies at Caltech estimated that returning a small near-Earth asteroid could deliver mass to high lunar orbit at roughly one-eighth the per-kilogram cost of launching it from Earth, and about one-twentieth on repeat missions. That architecture depends on capturing and de-spinning a tumbling, non-cooperative body, autonomously, in deep space.

NASA carried the concept forward as the Asteroid Redirect Mission and cancelled it in 2017, after its cost estimates grew. We’re doing this to get to that: prove the capture layer in Earth orbit, where the need is immediate and the market already exists, then carry it outward. Asteroid resources are the long-horizon destination.

Source: Brophy et al., Asteroid Retrieval Feasibility Study, Keck Institute for Space Studies, 2012.

Where we are

TRL 3, closing on TRL 4.

On record

WarpWare — executed services agreement. Coupled physics modeling, simulation, and capture dynamics characterization.

KMI SPACE

KMI Space — conditional, non-binding letter of intent, contingent on TRL 4 validation.

AFRL

Confirmed technical point of contact at AFRL with Phase I proposal support offered.

Timeline

Milestones

1. 2017

   The gap

   NASA cancels its Asteroid Redirect Mission after cost estimates grow. Affordable capture of a tumbling, uncooperative object remains an open problem.

2. 2018

   Foam

   A space-rated foam as the interface between a capture system and a tumbling, uncooperative target. The company gets its name: Delta Infinite — infinite change.

3. 2019–21

   Theory

   Foam behavior under vacuum, and the framework for a deployable foam capture interface.

4. 2022

   Founded

   Company formation with support from the Santa Cruz SBDC and the Entrepreneurs’ Law Clinic at Santa Clara University.

5. 2023

   The team forms

   Jim Cochran-Miller joins as Engineering Lead. Dr. Michael Browne joins as Science Lead.

6. 2024

   First vacuum test

   The team builds a vacuum chamber, holds stable vacuum over 24 hours, and completes the first successful vacuum foam-deployment test. Delta Infinite LLC is formed and the company relocates to Colorado.

7. 2025

   Federal readiness

   Government-compliant indirect rate structure in place. NASA SBIR Phase I and Colorado OEDIT applications prepared. Invited to pitch to space-resources investors at Colorado School of Mines.

8. 2026

   Third-party validation

   • AprKMI Space — conditional, non-binding letter of intent, contingent on TRL 4 validation.
   • MayWarpWare — executed services agreement.
   • MayThermal-vacuum validation campaign written to formal standard.
   • JunConfirmed technical point of contact at AFRL with Phase I proposal support offered.
9. Now

   Closing on TRL 4

   The validation campaign is scoped, documented, and gated on funding. Bootstrapped to this point without external capital. We’re looking for investors, capture and servicing partners, and program offices to take it through TRL 4.

   Start a conversationEmail Kai

Team

Who’s building it

Jim and Michael contribute to Delta Infinite at no cost to the company at this stage, converting to funded full-time roles at seed.

Kai Cahlil

Founder & CEO

Working toward asteroid resource capture since 2012; founded Delta Infinite in 2022. Leads strategy, partnerships, and funding, and set up the company’s federal contracting foundation.

Jim Cochran-Miller

Engineering Lead

Builds the test environment: the vacuum chamber the foam is tested in, now in its third revision.

Full bio

Jim takes concepts through testing into practical application. Ten-plus years managing the design and construction of district energy and energy conservation systems — hydronic, controls, telecommunications, electrical, and manufacturing process systems — for clients including Apple, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Air Force, UC Berkeley, and CSU Fresno, on projects ranging from $10M to $200M. Aeronautical and mechanical engineering, Clarkson University.

At Delta Infinite he builds the test environment. The vacuum chamber the foam is tested in is his, now in its third revision, and he leads the expansion into thermal cycling and UV exposure. In his words: “I love being able to identify a problem, break it into solvable pieces, and then tackle those pieces one at a time.”

Dr. Michael Browne

Science Lead

Leads foam chemistry, cure characterization, and materials testing.

Full bio

PhD in analytical and biophysical chemistry from University of the Pacific; BS in pharmaceutical chemistry from UC Davis. Managed the University of the Pacific mass spectrometry facility, with instrumentation depth across LC-MS/MS, GC-MS/MS, pyrolysis GC-MS, DART-MS, and HRMS. Published in the International Journal of Mass Spectrometry, Biopolymers, and the Journal of Physical Organic Chemistry. Previously at Chevron Energy Technology. Currently a PK/PD bioanalytics scientist at Firefly Bio.

His work identifies and solves the two problems gating everything else: vacuum bubble collapse and cure kinetics. He has demonstrated mitigation of the former through bulking agents, and defines the analytical instrumentation strategy for the thermal-vacuum campaign.

Thornelia

Growth Lead

As a Mammillaria spinosissima, Thornelia champions patient, resilient growth, thriving under harsh conditions and reminding the team that even the most ambitious missions begin with strong roots.