\u201cWhat we\u2019re building is the first system of its type. It gives the very high efficiency of electric systems, but it gives a much higher amount of thrust \u2014 in some cases over 100 times the thrust of current electric systems,\u201d Mark Stokes, CEO of the Oxford-based startup, told Breaking Defense last week.<\/p>\n
Electric propulsion systems may not be able to move a spacecraft fast, but they are being used today by satellites designed to maneuver in large part because they don\u2019t have the problem of running out of fuel. By contrast, on-board chemical thrusters on spacecraft, which rely on stored propellants, can provide a lot of thrust, but they get pretty low gas milage, so to speak, and of course eventually run dry.<\/p>\n
Magdrive, Stokes explained, is seeking to provide a propulsion systems with the benefits of both.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, this isn\u2019t matching the thrust that you get from small chemical systems, but it is enough to raise electric systems to a point where it starts doing all the things that chemical systems can do, and the key point there is being able to do all of these maneuvers with just one system,\u201d he explained. In space, (relatively) high speed maneuvers are required for missions such as rendezvousing with another satellite or getting out of the way of a piece of\u00a0space junk<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a growing problem. Or, in the case of military satellites, avoiding an anti-satellite weapon.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can do rendezvous, you can do fast deployments, you can do large scale inclination changes,\u201d Stokes said.<\/p>\n Magdrive already has caught the eye of the UK government, and they\u2019re participating in one of the 13 projects the UK is funding as part of an initiative announced in January to support a sustainable space environment by getting rid of some of that junk.<\/p>\n \u201cMagdrive and the University of Southampton are investigating the feasibility of the Plasma thruster based Automated Deorbiting-Block (PAD-B) system,\u201d according to a Jan. 31 press release from the UK Space Agency. \u201cA mothership will carry many of these ~1 kg nano-spacecraft, which can be fired at\u00a0debris<\/a>\u00a0from afar. These will attach and work together to autonomously bring the debris into the atmosphere to dispose of it.\u201d<\/p>\n The project is funded at \u00a3199,500 (about $246,000) to \u201cdeliver flight hardware for a subcomponent prototype space flight in June 2022,\u202f\u201d the release said.<\/p>\n All totaled, Magdrive has raised some $3.5 million in grant funds from the UK government and the European Commission, according to Stokes. One of the firm\u2019s key funders is also billionaire Peter Theil\u2019s San Francisco-based venture capital firm, Founders Fund.<\/p>\n With regard to the UK Ministry of Defence, he said, \u201cWe don\u2019t have any funds at the moment but we certainly do have those ambitions.\u201d<\/p>\n Orbiting The Defense Market, Including DoD<\/strong><\/p>\n Further, Stokes added, Magdrive is working on setting up a US arm that can sell to the Defense Department, which is a huge customer for space companies in general.<\/p>\n \u201cMagdrive\u2019s future is American, 100%,\u201d Stokes said.<\/p>\n Already, Magdrive\u00a0in May<\/a>\u00a0was chosen by Amazon Web Services as one of 10 projects for its 2022 AWS Space Accelerator program. While no cash exchanges hands under that program, Magdrive essentially gets oodles of free time on AWS\u2019s servers to run the supercomputer used to help with physics simulations, Stokes said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the company\u2019s goal is scale up the current \u201cMagdrive-nano\u201d design \u2014 which weigh 1 kilogram, and are the size of the smallest nanosatellites \u2014 first for use in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Stokes said the company is looking for partners to help prove that, scaled up, the propulsion system can really provide the promised thrust in a demo launch currently planned for 2024.<\/p>\n The business plan for this first-step propulsion system design, he said, is that a customer could buy as many of the individual Magdrive-nano units as they need to power their spacecraft for whatever missions they have in mind.<\/p>\n Aiming For A New Space Age<\/strong><\/p>\n But Stokes is convinced that the company is on the verge of propelling the spacecraft engine business into a \u201cnew space age\u201d by opening up the possibility for faster and more efficient travel across vast regions in space \u2014 such as the\u00a0cislunar<\/a>\u00a0volume between the Earth\u2019s outer atmosphere and that of the Moon, where the US Space Force has set its operational sites.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s goal, he said, is to enable \u201cthe sci-fi stuff,\u201d such as on-orbit manufacturing and orbital assembly, he said. \u201cIt\u2019s lookin at asteroid mining, it\u2019s looking at lunar activity.\u201d<\/p>\n Magdrive, he said, for example hopes to work with California startup Varda Space Industries (a company launched by Founders Fund principal Delian Asparouhov) which has set its sites on building \u201cthe world\u2019s first commercial zero-gravity industrial park,\u201d according to its\u00a0website<\/a>.<\/p>\n Indeed, Stokes is convinced that a beefed up Magdrive propulsion system \u2014 \u201cimaginatively named Super Magdrive,\u201d he joked \u2014 is on the cusp of a propulsion system revolution that in essence could be game changing, complementing the\u00a0nuclear-propulsion systems<\/a>\u00a0now being studied by Space Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for such far flung missions.<\/p>\n But its fuel, Stokes explained, isn\u2019t radioactive. Instead it is an inert metal that is \u201cburned\u201d to create a plasma that drives the system.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re using a solid metal propellant instead of a gas. That means we need a lot more power to ionize it, but when we do, it creates a super hot, super dense plasma at about 15,000 degrees for about half a microsecond. And within that time is when we contain it with magnetic fields, and we accelerate it out to produce our thrust,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Further, that metal can be mined from asteroids \u2014 meaning that in the future Magdrive\u2019s next-generation propulsion systems could be built in space.<\/p>\n Stokes said that Magdrive already has been in conversations with big-name engine-maker Rolls Royce about it\u2019s plans to build a small nuclear fission device to power deep-space spacecraft. \u201cWe\u2019ve had some very cool conversations where they\u2019ve asked me for my requirements,\u201d he said, sounding just a bit like a kid in a candy shop.<\/p>\n<\/del><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Magdrive-nano-thruster.webp\")