Today's space propulsion systems are not equipped for our new era of space travel and operations. They usually fall into one of two camps:
Chemical: Great for high thrust and manoeuvrability - but low efficiency and high cost when travelling longer distances.
Electric: Efficient and great for long distances - but cannot deliver the thrust required for agile satellite operations or avoidance manoeuvres.
Magdrive is using metal propellant to create a high energy plasma, in the world's first propulsion system that can do both.
We backed Mark and Thomas in their first investment round back in 2020 - along with our friends at Entrepreneur First, Outsized Ventures, Founders Fund, and others. Having seen their first launch back in 2023, we can't wait to see bigger-and-bigger Magdrives enter orbit over the coming months and years, unlocking a huge array of in-space applications.
#space#startup#propulsion#frontier
We're in a golden era for space. Cheap launch has enabled so many things, but we still can't move around out there. That's a pretty damn big problem. Companies are planning mega constellations of 10s of thousands of satellites, and we're even looking further afield towards building huge stations for human habitation and asteroid mining. But these ambitions are out of reach because satellite propulsion isn't good enough. It either delivers a high amount of thrust or it delivers excellent efficiency. There's no system right now that does both. What we're building is the first system of its kind. That has the best of both worlds. It has the high efficiency that you find with electric propulsion, but with a magnitude improvement in thrust so that we can accomplish an entire mission set with just one single propulsion system. The secret source comes down to two main pieces here. The first one is doing high voltage in a really small area and the 2nd is the plasma injector. The Mac drive is a electric system that takes power from the spacecraft and we store that locally. Do charge up the mag drive and then you're able to discharge it over a few seconds. We take the power from the internal energy storage, step it up to over 1000 volts and charge a pulse power system. This then discharges extremely rapidly on the time scale of hundreds of nanoseconds of treated MW pulses, which vaporize a metal propellant into a plasma bullet when we discharge with very rapidly producing a train of plasma bullets at hundreds of Hertz. So in 1015 years from now is when these huge space stations, when these huge mega constellations in space are really returning all the benefits from space down to Earth we're talking about enhanced. Medicine capability, much better disaster relief, Internet across the entire world. The real driver of this is being as maneuverable as we possibly can be in space. And that means being able to build that out from small satellites up to something which way is half a ton and all the way out from Leo all the way out to Geo. We want to build bigger and bigger Mac drives till the day we die. 7% right from the start showed a real willingness to understand what the technology was about it. It's been a real advantage actually, going from the UK out into Europe and out into the US. To say that we have 7% backing, the name is known out there. It's known as being a backer of difficult challenges being addressed by these startup companies and it really gives you a pedigree when you're talking to other space investors.
This is incredibly exciting news!
The Magdrive propulsion system is a game-changer for the space industry. It's fantastic to see a breakthrough that addresses the limitations of traditional propulsion methods.
Over $5 million in new funding is closed by Longshot Space to create a space gun in the desert.
A massive, miles-long "gun" would be a far more effective weapon than a rocket.
Longshot Space, a business that is radically reimagining how to transport mass into orbit, poses that query. The business is working on a kinetic launch technology that will send payloads into orbit by progressively accelerating them to hypersonic speeds. The startup, Longshot, is betting that its full-scale system can reach extremely low orbital costs compared to a rocket, as low as $10 per kilogram. This is a startling decrease from the $6,000 per kilogram cost of a ride-share on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. However, the system will take up a lot of space.
#LongshotSpace#SpaceGun#FundingNews#InnovationInSpace#SpaceTechnology#DesertLaunch#Aerospace#TechFunding#SpaceExploration#FutureOfSpace#InvestmentInInnovation#SpaceIndustry#NewFrontiers#RocketScience#SpaceStartups#FS#Startups#Foundingstartups
The flurry of deals being announced in the space segment of A&D towards the end of Q2 continues with satellite manufacturer Apex raising $95 million in a Series B fundraising round led by XYZ Venture Capital with participation from Andreseen Horowitz, Toyota Ventures and other firms. Excerpts from my story for Aviation Week Network below:
Apex positions itself as a specialized maker of satellite buses, which it calls “productized” because they allow customers to get to space faster than with traditional buses.
The company was founded in 2022 by Ian Cinnamon, an entrepreneur whose startup Synapse Technology was acquired by Palantir in 2020 and SpaceX alumnus Maximilian Benassi. In the typically long and expensive custom satellite bus production process, they saw both a bottleneck and business opportunity. “The West cannot achieve the capabilities we need in space at the necessary scale and speed without a productized approach to powering and supporting satellites,” Cinnamon said in a June 12 statement, adding the new capital injection would allow the company to expand its product line and build the satellite buses “at industry-leading scale.”
The $95 million investment in Apex follows the company’s March launch of its Aries satellite on the SpaceX Transporter-10 rideshare mission. With its new funding, Apex will be able both to speed up production of Aries and development of its larger satellite buses Nova and Comet. Aries is designed to support a top payload of 150 kg (331 lb.), Nova 300 kg and Comet 500 kg. Production of Nova is slated to begin in 2025.
One potential challenge for Apex could be the preference of some customers like SpaceX for vertical integration. Yet most in the space sector do not have the resources of the Elon Musk-owned company. With interest rates persistently high and stubborn inflation, there are advantages to using a wide variety of suppliers.
#space#satellite#spacex#elonmusk#venturecapital#investing#aerospace#startups#fundinghttps://lnkd.in/e7e-6SVv
We are honored to be mentioned in the same article with a generational rocket scientist in Andy Lapsa and a wonderful investor in Anton Brevde.
Great article by Aashna Shah of Bloomberg
We now sit at the dawn of a new era in space which includes rapid growth in the space economy. Companies like Stoke Space, Impulse Space, Anduril Industries, X-Bow Systems Inc., SpaceX, Varda Space Industries, Space Perspective, and others are reshaping life on Earth. They will also reshape life off Earth.
A growing space and defense tech startup ecosystem is pushing the boundaries of software, manufacturing. transportation, medicine, and artificial intelligence. In doing so, private space companies are showing investors the transformational potential of allocating capital in the final frontier. hashtag
#spacex#Space#Spacenews#DualUse#SpaceTechhttps://lnkd.in/e2nz4Qmk
Close to 7 billion users rely heavily on satellite navigation everyday, and generates an estimated value of over $500B annually in the U.S. alone. This prompts an interesting question - What would be the enterprise value of a GPS-like system if operated by a private entity?
Traditional GPS seriously falls short in the modern world. It is incapable of supporting applications that require centimeter-level accuracy, such as autonomous vehicles, city-wide augmented reality experiences, and secure military operations demanding jam-resistant navigation. The need for a universally reliable, secure, and precise navigation service remains unfulfilled. At the same time, if the U.S. continues to lose its GPS dominance to China, there could be profound consequences that would diminish America's influence on setting technological standards.
Xona Space Systems offers the solution and is poised to transform how global industries operate. With over 150x stronger signal than GPS and down to 2cm in accuracy, they're positioned not just as an alternative, but as a true successor to GPS.
So proud to have the company in Space Capital's portfolio. Shoutout to the brilliant Brian Manning, as well the many other amazing talents on the team: Tyler Reid, Adrien Perkins, Kazuma Gunning, Jerami M., Bryan Chan, Jessica Hulsey, and many more.
Excited to support the team in this critical phase alongside so many resourceful investors, and witness the exciting growth ahead!
https://lnkd.in/gE9rg5xB#spacecapital#spaceeconomy#space#spacetech#defense#defensetech#GPS#GNSS#PNT
On Thursday, 3rd October 2024, Impulse Space, a prominent provider of in-space transportation services, successfully concluded its $150 million Series B funding round. This round was spearheaded by Founders Fund, with additional investments from existing backers Lux Capital and SpringTide Ventures, as well as newcomers like DCVC. Furthermore, Airbus Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and Balerion Space Ventures also contributed to this funding round.
Impulse Space is a prominent player in the field of in-space transportation services, specializing in swift and cost-effective delivery of payloads from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), Geostationary Orbit (GEO), and beyond. With flight operations set to commence in 2026, the company has recently secured a $150 million Series B funding round, which was spearheaded by Founders Fund, and included participation from existing investors Lux Capital and Spring Tide, as well as newcomers like DCVC. Additional supporters of the funding round encompass Airbus Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and Balerion Space Ventures.
Factacy.ai Congratulates and wishes them well.
Thomas Mueller#innovation#management#digitalmarketing#technology#creativity#futurism#startups
Remember.
We can now predictably send rockets into space loaded with tens of millions of dollars worth of satellites, land that same rocket back on a platform in the middle of the ocean with pin point accuracy, and then use it over and over again.
You can succeed with your startup.
#frames#innovate#founders
Full profile here: https://www.7pc.vc/portfolio/magdrive