2. Stationkeeping thrusters for spacecraft already in their operating orbits, especially very large constellations (where cost of traditional electric or hypergolic options would be outrageously large, or totally impossible) and/or servicable spacecraft (where the inertness of water makes it safer to handle, including to the point of a pressurized shirt-sleeve environment)
August 5, 2019Momentus plans to conduct a test launch in 2020 of Vigoride, a shuttle to ferry payloads from one location in low Earth orbit to another, by sending a satellite into orbit through NanoRacks’ Kaber Microsat Deployer on the space station. ...Once the Bishop Airlock is in place, Momentus will send its Vigoride customers into orbit through the commercial airlock, Momentus and NanoRacks announced Aug. 5 at the Small Satellite Conference here.
Momentus To Provide In-Space Transportation Service to its Customers On SpaceX SmallSat Rideshare Launch Service to deliver customer satellites to multiple custom orbits from a single Falcon 9 launchWe are excited to have Momentus as SpaceX’s first customer on a dedicated small satellite rideshare mission --Gwynne Shotwell, President and Chief Operating Officer at SpaceX.SANTA CLARA, CALIF. (PRWEB) AUGUST 22, 2019Momentus (http://www.momentus.space), provider of in-space shuttle services that move satellites between orbits, today announced plans to provide orbital shuttle service to its customers on SpaceX’s first dedicated SmallSat Rideshare mission. Momentus’ Vigoride orbital shuttle will carry multiple customer satellites, with a total mass up to 250 kg, each to its own custom orbit on a mission scheduled to launch no earlier than late 2020. As part of this launch, Momentus will offer its customers the ability to access multiple destination orbits through its in-space last-mile transportation services.A graduate of the prestigious Y Combinator program and based in Santa Clara, California, Momentus recently announced a $25.5MM Series A, bringing total funding to $34M. Momentus employs new and proprietary technology including water plasma propulsion for the mission of low-cost sustainable transportation through space. Momentus’ Vigoride orbital shuttle, which is designed and built in-house, is powered by proprietary water plasma propulsion to ferry satellites from one orbit to another.“We are showing that ridesharing from the Falcon 9 will be a game-changer. By ferrying payloads to multiple orbits from a single launch, we multiply the capability of an already very impressive system,” said Mikhail Kokorich, CEO of Momentus. “I’m personally thrilled to have the opportunity to work with SpaceX.”“We are excited to have Momentus as SpaceX’s first customer on a dedicated small satellite rideshare mission,” said Gwynne Shotwell, President and Chief Operating Officer at SpaceX. “Their innovative technology will offer a strong complement to Falcon 9’s capability to reliably and affordably launch payloads for small satellite operators.”About MomentusMomentus provides in-space shuttle services for satellites. The company was founded in 2017 in Santa Clara, CA with the idea to revolutionize space transportation. Momentus designs and builds orbital shuttles propelled by proprietary water plasma thrusters. The service ferries satellites to final orbits after they are delivered by conventional rockets to their initial orbit. Momentus is a 30 person team growing rapidly. The company has raised $34MM to date.For more information and a list of job openings, please visit us at http://www.momentus.space/careers
Quote from: gongora on 08/22/2019 06:26 pmMomentus To Provide In-Space Transportation Service to its Customers On SpaceX SmallSat Rideshare Launch Service to deliver customer satellites to multiple custom orbits from a single Falcon 9 launchWe are excited to have Momentus as SpaceX’s first customer on a dedicated small satellite rideshare mission --Gwynne Shotwell, President and Chief Operating Officer at SpaceX.SANTA CLARA, CALIF. (PRWEB) AUGUST 22, 2019Momentus (http://www.momentus.space), provider of in-space shuttle services that move satellites between orbits, today announced plans to provide orbital shuttle service to its customers on SpaceX’s first dedicated SmallSat Rideshare mission. Momentus’ Vigoride orbital shuttle will carry multiple customer satellites, with a total mass up to 250 kg, each to its own custom orbit on a mission scheduled to launch no earlier than late 2020. As part of this launch, Momentus will offer its customers the ability to access multiple destination orbits through its in-space last-mile transportation services.A graduate of the prestigious Y Combinator program and based in Santa Clara, California, Momentus recently announced a $25.5MM Series A, bringing total funding to $34M. Momentus employs new and proprietary technology including water plasma propulsion for the mission of low-cost sustainable transportation through space. Momentus’ Vigoride orbital shuttle, which is designed and built in-house, is powered by proprietary water plasma propulsion to ferry satellites from one orbit to another.“We are showing that ridesharing from the Falcon 9 will be a game-changer. By ferrying payloads to multiple orbits from a single launch, we multiply the capability of an already very impressive system,” said Mikhail Kokorich, CEO of Momentus. “I’m personally thrilled to have the opportunity to work with SpaceX.”“We are excited to have Momentus as SpaceX’s first customer on a dedicated small satellite rideshare mission,” said Gwynne Shotwell, President and Chief Operating Officer at SpaceX. “Their innovative technology will offer a strong complement to Falcon 9’s capability to reliably and affordably launch payloads for small satellite operators.”About MomentusMomentus provides in-space shuttle services for satellites. The company was founded in 2017 in Santa Clara, CA with the idea to revolutionize space transportation. Momentus designs and builds orbital shuttles propelled by proprietary water plasma thrusters. The service ferries satellites to final orbits after they are delivered by conventional rockets to their initial orbit. Momentus is a 30 person team growing rapidly. The company has raised $34MM to date.For more information and a list of job openings, please visit us at http://www.momentus.space/careersThe rideshare program seemed like a decent opportunity for Momentous when it was first announced. With this deveopment however, I wonder if it is now gamechanging.https://spacenews.com/spacex-revamps-smallsat-rideshare-program/Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't this drop the cost of the launch plus the service from Momentous below the current prices from an outfit like Rocket Lab and still give you a lot of the custom orbit capability that seems to be one of the major selling points they advertise? I wonder if this might route more of the business that would have gone to small launch operators without necessarily requiring Momentous through a Spacex/Momentous combo. It also might make it harder for small launch companies to gain further funding and perhaps easier for Momentous.I wonder what changes this will cause in Momentous' strategy or execution.
Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't this drop the cost of the launch plus the service from Momentous below the current prices from an outfit like Rocket Lab and still give you a lot of the custom orbit capability that seems to be one of the major selling points they advertise?
I wonder what changes this will cause in Momentous' strategy or execution.
Quote from: Blackjax on 08/30/2019 03:36 pmCorrect me if I am wrong, but doesn't this drop the cost of the launch plus the service from Momentous below the current prices from an outfit like Rocket Lab and still give you a lot of the custom orbit capability that seems to be one of the major selling points they advertise? Quite possibly, though you'd need to price out a F9 rideshare and a Vigoride or Vigoride Extended to be sure. If SpaceX charges a couple million for an ESPA port and a Vigoride is a couple million, then it should be less than a $6M Electron -- assuming your payload can fit within the mass/volume limitations.Might be interesting if the payload doesn't have to be deployed and can just continue to use the Vigoride's power and RCS systems -- basically a Momentus version of Rocketlab's Curie-based Photon bus.Quote from: Blackjax on 08/30/2019 03:36 pmI wonder what changes this will cause in Momentous' strategy or execution. I suspect that this is pretty much exactly what they were anticipating, and that Momentus has a much larger potential customer base in rideshares than in dedicated smallsat launches. As such, I'd guess that smallsat launchers will be their competition rather more often than their partners.I'm especially looking forward to their Fervoride vehicles, which could provide regular on-orbit shuttle services. Maybe stick a water tank and docking ring on the top of the Falcon 9 (or Soyuz or New Glenn, etc.) ESPA ring stack, and a Fervoride shuttle can snag the stack from the upper stage, refill its internal tank and then start hitting the specific orbits the payloads want, before getting back to LEO, ditching the stack, and waiting for the next rideshare flight. (And maybe grab and deorbit the odd dead LEO satellite when its got nothing better to do.)I mean, they're probably looking at Starship and thinking that it may be able to drop off 100+ tonnes in LEO, but it'll be a cheaper and more efficient to refill a 5-10t Fervoride for last mile delivery than an 80t Starship, and how many monolithic 100t+ payloads wanting to go to a single orbit will there be, anyway?SpaceX apparently doesn't want to do orbital tugs, so Momentus wants to step in as an on-orbit SpaceX. Vigoride is their version of the Falcon 1 -- cheap enough to be expendable, but with an eye towards the recovery, refueling and reuse of future vehicles. As SpaceX has shown, though, reuse is great but "cheap enough to be expended" is the important bit -- and I hope Momentus keeps that in mind for Vigoride on up.Fortunately for them, however, recovery and reuse of Fervoride and subsequent shuttles won't involve figuring out how to survive fiery plunges into Earth's atmosphere, just how to refill tankage with an inert, non-cryogenic monoprop that's even cheaper than dirt. ;-)
With Fervoride OTV the F9R could deliver 6-8t to lunar gateway. No way around chemical engines for landers and HSF but for cargo and fuel between LEO -LLO -LEO Fervoride OTV would ideal, especially if lunar water is avaliable in LLO. There is issue of solar panel degradation every time OTV passes through Van Allen belt, but this should be lot less compared to normal SEP, due to faster trip time.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190911005177/en/Relativity-Space-Signs-Launch-Services-Agreement-MultipleQuoteLOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Relativity Space, the world’s first autonomous rocket factory and launch services leader for satellites, today announced that it has signed a Launch Services Agreement (LSA) with Momentus, the provider of in-space shuttle services that move satellites between orbits, to launch Momentus’ small and medium satellite customers on Relativity’s Terran 1 rocket, the world’s first and only entirely 3D printed rocket. Momentus will then deliver their customers’ small and medium sized satellites to geosynchronous orbit (GEO) using the Momentus Vigoride Extended in-space shuttle service. The agreement includes Momentus’ purchase of a first launch, scheduled for 2021, with options for five additional launches with Relativity. The agreement opens access to a more diverse range of orbits for Terran 1 including geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), Lunar and deep space orbits, lower inclinations, and phasing of multiple spacecraft in low Earth orbit (LEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO). Small satellites will have access to even more flexible launch capabilities with Momentus-enabled missions combined with Terran 1’s class-leading features.
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Relativity Space, the world’s first autonomous rocket factory and launch services leader for satellites, today announced that it has signed a Launch Services Agreement (LSA) with Momentus, the provider of in-space shuttle services that move satellites between orbits, to launch Momentus’ small and medium satellite customers on Relativity’s Terran 1 rocket, the world’s first and only entirely 3D printed rocket. Momentus will then deliver their customers’ small and medium sized satellites to geosynchronous orbit (GEO) using the Momentus Vigoride Extended in-space shuttle service. The agreement includes Momentus’ purchase of a first launch, scheduled for 2021, with options for five additional launches with Relativity. The agreement opens access to a more diverse range of orbits for Terran 1 including geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), Lunar and deep space orbits, lower inclinations, and phasing of multiple spacecraft in low Earth orbit (LEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO). Small satellites will have access to even more flexible launch capabilities with Momentus-enabled missions combined with Terran 1’s class-leading features.
Vigoride, with a preliminary pricetag of $1.2 million, is designed to move satellites with a mass of 250 kilograms or less to new destinations in low Earth orbit. ...(snip)...Vigoride Extended, with a preliminary price of $4.8 million, will move satellites with a mass of 300 kilograms from low Earth orbit to geostationary transfer orbit, geostationary orbit or the moon
I kept needing prices for their services and not really finding them in this thread, so just for ease of reference in the future:QuoteVigoride, with a preliminary pricetag of $1.2 million, is designed to move satellites with a mass of 250 kilograms or less to new destinations in low Earth orbit. ...(snip)...Vigoride Extended, with a preliminary price of $4.8 million, will move satellites with a mass of 300 kilograms from low Earth orbit to geostationary transfer orbit, geostationary orbit or the moonsourced from this article https://spacenews.com/momentus-first-vigoride-customer/So to launch a 225kg Rocket Labs Electron size payload on a SpaceX Rideshare using Vigoride would cost:Base SpaceX Rideshare price for 200kg: $1,000,000Additional Rideshare Mass (25kg payload + Vigoride mass 80kg = 105kg @ $5000/kg): $525,000Vigoride price: $1,200,000SpaceX/Vigoride Total Cost: $2,725,000 ($12,111 per kg of payload)Rocket Labs Total Cost: $5,000,000 ($22,222 per kg of payload)For giggles I also priced out a scenario where you would aggregate many small payloads, distribute them across multiple vigorides and stack them into a single Relativity Terran 1 launch. I used Relatvity because it is the cheapest per kg of the plausible small launchers coming up.Relativity/3x Vigoride Total Cost: $13,600,000 ($13,737 per kg of payload)Relativity/4x Vigoride Total Cost: $14,800,000 ($13,831 per kg of payload)Would you actually really want to stick all those payloads on Vigorides on a Terran 1 rather than just launching on the Terran 1 directly? I dunno, I just ran the numbers for the hell of it.
VR-1 is expected to be deployed from a Falcon 9 launch in May 2020, and the mission is expected to have a duration of 180 days, i.e., from May 2020 to November 2020. ...For the initial mission, VR-1 will have the capacity to transport and deploy multiple payloads (individually, “Payload 1,” “Payload 2,” and “Payload 3,” and together, the “Payloads”). Payload 1 is expected to be a standard 6U cubesat and Payloads 2 and 3 are expected to be standard 3U cubesats....VR-1 has a planned launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in May 2020. VR-1 will be affixed directly to the payload of the Falcon 9 and deployed into a 220 by 380 km elliptical orbit with a 53 degree inclination (Footnote 3 The launch vehicle operator has indicated it may select an alternative insertion orbit of 289 km circular.). After separation from the launch vehicle, VR-1 will undergo commissioning and, upon completion, will conduct orbit-raising maneuvers to a targeted 380 km circular orbit with a 53 degree inclination. At this orbital destination, VR-1 will deploy Payloads 1 and 2. After deployment of Payloads 1 and 2, VR-1 will conduct orbit-raising maneuvers to a targeted 500 km circular orbit with a 53 degree inclination. At this orbital destination, VR-1 will deploy Payload 3. ...As part of the orbit raising, Momentus will calculate and monitor propellant consumption and reserve a sufficient amount of propellant to ensure that VR-1 will be capable of conducting a final de-orbit maneuver, as discussed below. While Momentus believes that theoretically VR-1 will be able to attain a circular orbit of 500 km, as an operational matter, it is possible that VR-1 will not reach that orbital altitude. Regardless, as demonstrated in the attached Orbital Debris Assessment Report, a 500 km circular orbit would be the worst-case scenario for orbital debris purposes, and Payload 3 and VR-1 would each re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere in less than 4 years at that altitude. Following deployment of Payload 3, VR-1 will engage in de-orbit maneuvers to lower the perigee of the spacecraft to 300 km altitude. At a (maximum) 500 x 300 km orbit, Momentus calculates that VR-1 will de-orbit within one year. Naturally, if VR-1 does not reach a 500 km circular orbit, the VR-1 de-orbit period will be even shorter after completion of the de-orbit maneuver.