By Dean Murray via SWNS
A quirky new spaceship will be able to carry out currently impossible missions, according to developers.
Seattle start-up Portal Space Systems, led by Jeff Thornburg, architect of SpaceX’s Raptor engine, says its revolutionary Supernova satellite bus will hop between orbits and have 50 times the range of existing spacecraft.â¯
The company announced this week they have received over $3 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and Space Force.
Portal says: “The next era of the space economy will involve servicing and life extension if the players in the industry today have it their way, and that will require extreme spacecraft maneuverability.
“Portal Space Systems believes it can help realize this vision by making it easier and much faster to move spacecraft around in orbit.”
Portal says the Supernova satellite bus is engineered from the ground up for maneuverability and features a novel solar-thermal propulsion system.
These systems use large mirrors or concentrators to focus sunlight onto a heat exchanger. The concentrated sunlight heats a working fluid or propellant, such as hydrogen, stored in a tank.
The heated propellant expands rapidly and is ejected through a nozzle, creating thrust in the opposite direction.
Supernova is a 500 kg payload-agnostic platform, able to accommodate different types of payloads, that can maneuver quickly within or between orbits.
The company says it will be able to transfer from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to Geostationary Orbit (GEO) within a few hours, along with the ability to hop between orbits multiple times during its lifetime.
Portal is targeting the first launch of the Supernova system in late 2025.
Jeff Thornburg, CEO of Portal Space Systems and former architect of SpaceX’s Raptor Engine says: “The space industry hasn’t fundamentally improved satellite bus technology in decades. Our nation is developing 6th-generation fighter aircraft technology but still uses 1st-generation satellite buses.
“Portal’s Supernova is designed around the customer need for unparalleled mobility and extended mission life.
“Our novel solar-thermal propulsion system and bus design, combined with our compatibility to support any customer payload, sets us apart.
“We provide an over 50x improvement in current spacecraft mobility. For our customers, that means the ability to have spacecraft on orbit that are able to respond in real-time to events in any orbital regime.”
