ACE is an electric propulsion system with revolutionary performance. Including PPU, propellant, feed system and Hall thruster, the system delivers 16 mN of thrust and 200,000 N-s of impulse in a toaster-sized package.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today we are excited to announce a major breakthrough with our new electric propulsion system, Apollo Constellation Engine (ACE). Apollo recently tested ACE in an independent lab at The Aerospace Corporation where thrust, Isp, and system efficiency measurements closely matched Apollo's own lab tests. These results showed that ACE has 3x better impulse per kg and 3x better impulse per liter than competing thrusters on the market today. These advantages can result in a launch cost savings of $250,000+ for satellite manufacturers."Satellite manufacturers are often constrained by mass or by volume," said Apollo Fusion co-founder and CTO Ben Longmier. "On both metrics, ACE is unmatched.""The successful development and commercial delivery of a new high performance electric propulsion thruster such as ACE enables a whole range of capabilities and business models leveraging increased mobility of space platforms, and opening the door to another phase of innovation in space," said Victor Aguero, Sr. Program Development Manager, SRI International's Signals and Space Technology Laboratory. SRI has delivered advanced satellite technology solutions to clients for decades, and is a thought leader in proposing how space will be used in the future."ACE enables satellite manufacturers to turbo optimize their system design," said Apollo Fusion CEO Mike Cassidy. Traditional propulsion systems can occupy up to 30% of a satellite's volume. But ACE is so small and light that manufacturers can now ask whether they want to add more revenue-generating payload or shrink the satellite to reduce launch costs. Or both."We are already working with many of the top satellite companies in the industry as this breakthrough makes a significant impact on their business," said Cassidy.What does this mean for the industry?"Satellite costs are falling. Launch costs are falling. It's a great time for this innovation to come to the propulsion system as well. We have dramatically reduced costs, volume, and mass," Cassidy said. "The benefits to larger constellations can add up to hundreds of millions of dollars saved."Communication Satellite Constellations: With ACE, it's now possible for communication constellation vendors to cut satellite system cost, cut launch costs, and get their complete constellation into orbit significantly faster.Imaging Satellite Constellations: By allowing earth imaging satellites to fly at a lower orbit, ACE enables these satellites to double their resolution (and greatly increase their revenue) at one-fifth the cost of increasing their aperture size. ACE can maintain an imaging satellite's altitude at 300-350 km for 5 - 7 years.LEO to GEO: ACE cuts in half the cost of raising a satellite from LEO to GEO.Tests at The Aerospace Corporation and Quanta Laboratories confirmed that ACE exceeds mission requirements for our customers. Vibration tests were based on 8 popular launch vehicles. A 100 hour lifetime test, with 400 stops and starts, simulated the first weeks of a mission. ACE has successfully operated using three different types of propellant and has operated using 185W to 800W of input power. Test results show an expected operational lifetime exceeding 4,000 hours. About Apollo FusionApollo Fusion is led by two rocket scientists, co-founders Mike Cassidy and Ben Longmier. Mike is a serial entrepreneur with four successful startups and was previously a Vice President at Google where he led Project Loon, a high-altitude telecommunications product. Ben holds advanced degrees in Physics, Nuclear Engineering, and Plasma Physics, was a professor at the University of Michigan, and was the founder and CEO of an aerospace company which was acquired by Apple. The team has over 100 years worth of Hall thruster experience.For more information, please contact [email protected].
Apollo Fusion Web SiteQuote...ACE has successfully operated using three different types of propellant and has operated using 185W to 800W of input power. Test results show an expected operational lifetime exceeding 4,000 hours....
...ACE has successfully operated using three different types of propellant and has operated using 185W to 800W of input power. Test results show an expected operational lifetime exceeding 4,000 hours....
Quote from: gongora on 03/19/2018 05:29 pmApollo Fusion Web SiteQuote...ACE has successfully operated using three different types of propellant and has operated using 185W to 800W of input power. Test results show an expected operational lifetime exceeding 4,000 hours....4,000 hours is about 166 days of continuous use. No doubt this is designed for satellite operation, but I wonder what it would take to adapt it for "fast transit" human-crewed interplanetary spacecraft? Because 166 days is not quite enough for a round trip to Mars...
Quote from: Coastal Ron on 07/13/2018 12:44 amQuote from: gongora on 03/19/2018 05:29 pmApollo Fusion Web SiteQuote...ACE has successfully operated using three different types of propellant and has operated using 185W to 800W of input power. Test results show an expected operational lifetime exceeding 4,000 hours....4,000 hours is about 166 days of continuous use. No doubt this is designed for satellite operation, but I wonder what it would take to adapt it for "fast transit" human-crewed interplanetary spacecraft? Because 166 days is not quite enough for a round trip to Mars...What would a HSF-capable craft do with 16mN of thrust?
Interesting!Unfortunately their website is really low on technical details. I would really like to learn more about their approach to fusion reactors and their thruster.
Quote from: Elmar Moelzer on 03/22/2018 12:20 pmInteresting!Unfortunately their website is really low on technical details. I would really like to learn more about their approach to fusion reactors and their thruster.This isn't nuclear fusion (unfortunately ), and there is no reactor. It's just an improved electric thruster.
Quote from: envy887 on 07/14/2018 02:40 pmQuote from: Elmar Moelzer on 03/22/2018 12:20 pmInteresting!Unfortunately their website is really low on technical details. I would really like to learn more about their approach to fusion reactors and their thruster.This isn't nuclear fusion (unfortunately ), and there is no reactor. It's just an improved electric thruster.The thruster is not powered by fusion, but they claim it shares technology with their fusion reactor concepts (see http://apollofusion.com/company.html, under Energy). The company was originally a fusion reactor company, you can see their past focus by using https://archive.org on their website. It looks like the thruster is either a pivot or just a way to pay the bills.
Quote from: niwax on 07/13/2018 12:25 pmQuote from: Coastal Ron on 07/13/2018 12:44 amQuote from: gongora on 03/19/2018 05:29 pmApollo Fusion Web SiteQuote...ACE has successfully operated using three different types of propellant and has operated using 185W to 800W of input power. Test results show an expected operational lifetime exceeding 4,000 hours....4,000 hours is about 166 days of continuous use. No doubt this is designed for satellite operation, but I wonder what it would take to adapt it for "fast transit" human-crewed interplanetary spacecraft? Because 166 days is not quite enough for a round trip to Mars...What would a HSF-capable craft do with 16mN of thrust?That's about 68 nanometres / second ^2 acceleration for a 235 tonne spacecraftOf course with an 8KW array you could increase that 10x. If you dedicated 80KW that would increase 10x more. I'll let others who are better at orbital mechanics say if that's worthwhile. Personally I like the 16mN-in-a-package-the-size-of-a-toaster that's 1/2 the weight of competitors and can run on 3 different fuels (probably with a hit on Isp). Xenon is expensive and hypergols are very toxic. ARgon is probably the cheapest but Helium would probably be the best. B
That erosion limits the lifetime of a conventional Hall thruster to about 200,000 newton-seconds of impulse. Magnetic shielding allows the thruster to last far longer: Cassidy estimated its impulse will be up to 10 times higher.Apollo Fusion plans to take that technology and commercialize it, including “design to manufacturability” changes that reduces the use of exotic materials and long-lead-time components. That reflects the difference in demand the company anticipates. “Many of the JPL missions might be building one or two probes, whereas for some of our customers it may be hundreds of satellites,” he said.
Interesting. The Apollo Constellation Engine ACE is in the 400w range that NASA is looking for the PPE.https://apollofusion.com/
https://spacenews.com/astra-to-acquire-spacecraft-propulsion-company-apollo-fusion/QuoteAstra to acquire spacecraft propulsion company Apollo Fusionby Jeff Foust — June 7, 2021WASHINGTON — Launch vehicle developer Astra is acquiring Apollo Fusion, a company developing electric propulsion systems for spacecraft, as part of its effort to create vertically integrated space systems.Astra is purchasing Apollo Fusion for $30 million in stock and $20 million in cash in a deal announced June 7.
Astra to acquire spacecraft propulsion company Apollo Fusionby Jeff Foust — June 7, 2021WASHINGTON — Launch vehicle developer Astra is acquiring Apollo Fusion, a company developing electric propulsion systems for spacecraft, as part of its effort to create vertically integrated space systems.Astra is purchasing Apollo Fusion for $30 million in stock and $20 million in cash in a deal announced June 7.
https://astra.com/news/astra-apollo-reaching-new-orbits-together/?swcfpc=1QuoteASTRA & APOLLO: REACHING NEW ORBITS TOGETHERJUNE 7, 2021By: Benjamin LyonToday, we announced that Astra will acquire Apollo Fusion. This acquisition enables Astra to efficiently deliver and operate throughout our solar system, and brings incredible technology and talent into our team.So, what is this all really about? At Astra we’re focused on rapid and affordable access to space. This really requires two kinds of transportation: You always have to first fly from Earth to a low orbit on the edge of space, and Astra shines in getting you to the best possible low orbit for your mission. However, often you need to keep going — to fly higher in space for your operational mission. And this is where Apollo comes in.Let’s dig into this a bit. When flying from the ground to space, you need powerful, high-thrust engines to overcome gravity and push the vehicle with its payload through the atmosphere at an ever-increasing speed. This requires a LOT of thrust and consumes a huge amount of fuel. (Typically, 90% of more of the weight of a rocket ready to lift off is fuel) Once you get to space and are in a low orbit, the spacecraft is floating in zero gravity, so you can use very small forces to move around. This is analogous to a getting a boat into a lake – it’s very heavy to lift and carry it on the ground, but light paddling will move it easily once it’s in the water.This “paddling” is where electric propulsion (EP) systems come into play in space. Harnessing the power of the sun, they use electricity to accelerate a very small flow of inert gas to high speed, producing a constant, low thrust that is highly efficient. The high efficiency allows a spacecraft to slowly but continuously accelerate, which moves it to a higher and higher orbit. This makes EP an excellent solution for going from low earth orbits to medium, high, or geostationary orbits, and even to the moon or beyond!We chose Apollo Fusion because they had developed a best-in-class EP system that is cost-effective and reliable, at scale. Apollo’s design cycles are measured in months, not years, and their solutions are both easy to manufacture and to assemble. They don’t see their job as done when they have something that initially works. Apollo continues to optimize for manufacturability and scalability.Astra has purposefully drawn its talent from beyond the aerospace industry, and bringing the best practices from tech, automotive, services and other industries has been a key element to our rapid progress to date. Apollo Founder and CEO, Mike Cassidy, shares the same belief in the value diverse skill sets bring. He has both the understanding and experience of how bring consumer technologies like high performance, low power processing to aerospace, with team members from companies such as SpaceX, Google, Tesla and Apple. Their deep expertise is important too: Apollo team members have contributed to over 2,000 satellites in orbit today. Their culture shares Astra’s focus on maximizing development velocity, designing for scale, and passion about the opportunity that space creates.We are delighted to welcome the Apollo Fusion team into the Astra team! I’m excited to see what we do together.Ad Astra!-B
ASTRA & APOLLO: REACHING NEW ORBITS TOGETHERJUNE 7, 2021By: Benjamin LyonToday, we announced that Astra will acquire Apollo Fusion. This acquisition enables Astra to efficiently deliver and operate throughout our solar system, and brings incredible technology and talent into our team.So, what is this all really about? At Astra we’re focused on rapid and affordable access to space. This really requires two kinds of transportation: You always have to first fly from Earth to a low orbit on the edge of space, and Astra shines in getting you to the best possible low orbit for your mission. However, often you need to keep going — to fly higher in space for your operational mission. And this is where Apollo comes in.Let’s dig into this a bit. When flying from the ground to space, you need powerful, high-thrust engines to overcome gravity and push the vehicle with its payload through the atmosphere at an ever-increasing speed. This requires a LOT of thrust and consumes a huge amount of fuel. (Typically, 90% of more of the weight of a rocket ready to lift off is fuel) Once you get to space and are in a low orbit, the spacecraft is floating in zero gravity, so you can use very small forces to move around. This is analogous to a getting a boat into a lake – it’s very heavy to lift and carry it on the ground, but light paddling will move it easily once it’s in the water.This “paddling” is where electric propulsion (EP) systems come into play in space. Harnessing the power of the sun, they use electricity to accelerate a very small flow of inert gas to high speed, producing a constant, low thrust that is highly efficient. The high efficiency allows a spacecraft to slowly but continuously accelerate, which moves it to a higher and higher orbit. This makes EP an excellent solution for going from low earth orbits to medium, high, or geostationary orbits, and even to the moon or beyond!We chose Apollo Fusion because they had developed a best-in-class EP system that is cost-effective and reliable, at scale. Apollo’s design cycles are measured in months, not years, and their solutions are both easy to manufacture and to assemble. They don’t see their job as done when they have something that initially works. Apollo continues to optimize for manufacturability and scalability.Astra has purposefully drawn its talent from beyond the aerospace industry, and bringing the best practices from tech, automotive, services and other industries has been a key element to our rapid progress to date. Apollo Founder and CEO, Mike Cassidy, shares the same belief in the value diverse skill sets bring. He has both the understanding and experience of how bring consumer technologies like high performance, low power processing to aerospace, with team members from companies such as SpaceX, Google, Tesla and Apple. Their deep expertise is important too: Apollo team members have contributed to over 2,000 satellites in orbit today. Their culture shares Astra’s focus on maximizing development velocity, designing for scale, and passion about the opportunity that space creates.We are delighted to welcome the Apollo Fusion team into the Astra team! I’m excited to see what we do together.Ad Astra!-B
https://investor.astra.com/news-releases/news-release-details/astra-announces-second-quarter-2021-financial-resultsQuoteASTRA ANNOUNCES SECOND QUARTER 2021 FINANCIAL RESULTSAug 12, 2021<snip>Acquired Apollo Fusion, one of the leading propulsion engines in the market, which expands our total addressable market to mid-Earth, geosynchronous, and lunar orbits.<snip>
ASTRA ANNOUNCES SECOND QUARTER 2021 FINANCIAL RESULTSAug 12, 2021<snip>Acquired Apollo Fusion, one of the leading propulsion engines in the market, which expands our total addressable market to mid-Earth, geosynchronous, and lunar orbits.<snip>
