Three Northern Michigan University alumni who aim to clean up space debris through their Marquette-based startup, Kall Morris Inc., won the $10,000 grand prize in a national virtual pitch competition for research on aerospace technology.
The founders of KMI are Adam Kall ('18 BS), who serves as director of technology; Austin Morris ('18 BS), director of engineering; and Troy Morris ('16 BS), director of operations. According to a summer 2021 Northern Magazine feature, the trio's vision is a series of sustainable, refuelable, orbital spacecraft to collect multiple small pieces of debris, which will eventually work together in tandem to collect large rocket bodies.
The virtual pitch was organized by the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI) and its sister organization, Rural Innovation Strategies, Inc. (RISI). Ten startups were represented.
For more information on Kall Morris' participation in the competition, read this blog post from Innovate Marquette SmartZone, which partners with Invent@NMU and other economic development organizations to grow and maintain a successful entrepreneurial ecosystem. Austin Morris worked at Invent@NMU as a student.