The Helios spacecraft will carry payloads to GEO at a fraction of the cost of Falcon Heavy. The company also has its sights set on Mars.
Impulse Space’s Helios spacecraft will carry payloads to GEO at a fraction of the cost of Falcon Heavy. The company also has its sights set on Mars.Tom Mueller was a founding employee of SpaceX. He was the lead designer on the Merlin engines that power SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
In an interview with IE, the pioneering engineer explained that “our larger vision is to help open up access to Mars and beyond in ways that benefit humanity.”announced its Helios in-space propulsion system in January. The company claims it will open up access to higher orbits, much like Falcon 9 made low Earth orbit more accessible.
“The key differentiator is Helios’s engine will use chemical propulsion rather than electric, to achieve up to 15,000 lbf of thrust.” What’s more, using the system is much cheaper than booking a slot aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket. According to Impulse Space, using Helios aboard a Falcon 9 rocket would provide the same performance as a Falcon Heavy rocket at two-thirds of the cost.
“There are a lot of learnings we’re taking from our first Mira flight into our development of Helios,” he continued. “For instance, many of the components we built for Mira, like star tracking and avionics, will be directly transferable to Helios. The experience we’ve gained operating Mira in space will also be very informative as we move forward with our Helios work.”
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