Europe is focusing on supporting smaller, more agile space tech companies, seeking to create its own SpaceX effect.
Keval Dattani was working as a nuclear engineer for Rolls-Royce’s submarine programme, focusing on Britain’s next-generation Dreadnought class submarines, when he suddenly found himself realising that space technology was making submarines obsolete – making the very technology he had dedicated so much of his career obsolete.
“Submarines may become useless in the future as radar and satellites become able to see deeper into the ocean,” he said. But Dattani reasoned that much of the technology developed for submarines could also be applied to spacecraft.
Keval Dattani, CEO and founder of Space Power;
Initially, he worked on developing small modular nuclear power for spacecraft, then came up with another space power idea that might be feasible in the shorter term: using lasers to provide extra power to space satellites.
That’s the idea behind Space Power, a startup that Dattani launched in 2019. Think of it like sending extra batteries into space to power startups, in the same way that we provide more power to our cell phones when their batteries are running low.
Satellites generally operate using solar energy, but their ability to generate and store the solar energy needed for their required functions degrades over time. Also, new technologies such as synthetic aperture radar and thermal imaging are very power hungry, and solar panels struggle to generate the power they need to operate. Satellite operators often need to conserve the use of hundreds of millions of dollars of satellites due to power concerns.
“It’s like having a Bugatti Veyron that you can only drive 30 minutes a day.”
“It’s like having a Bugatti Veyron that you can only drive for 30 minutes a day,” Dattani says.The idea with Space Power is to launch an auxiliary power source into space that can power satellites via a laser beam connection if needed.
The company plans to showcase its technology at the GCV Symposium in London next week and has partnered with British multinational aerospace company BAE Systems, with the aim of launching the first module into space in 2026. The company is seeking to raise £6.5 million ($8.3 million) in a seed round to fund construction and launch.
Dattani and SpacePower are among a surge in space-focused start-ups in the UK and Europe over the past decade as the region rushes to seize opportunities opened up by falling space launch costs. Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets have plummeted launch costs and demonstrated how private space companies can accelerate development.
Space Power, Space Villages, Astron Systems and Stars Edge are some of the early-stage startups exhibiting at the GCV Symposium in London in June.
European space exploration has tended to focus on large, publicly funded collaborations such as Arianespace, whose latest rocket, Ariane 6, cost about 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) and is four years behind schedule, but Europe is also seeking to develop smaller, cheaper and more agile alternatives to create its own SpaceX effect.
Investment in European space technology is growing rapidly. According to a survey by space technology venture capital firm Seraphim, European space technology investment in the first quarter of 2023 was about $565 million, surpassing North American investment. German rocket developer Isar Aerospace has raised $330 million to date, another rocket developer, Rocket Factory Augsburg, has raised more than $63 million, and British rocket developer Orbex has raised $130 million to date.
The space technology companies showcasing systems at the GCV Symposium are young, seed- and pre-seed-stage companies, but they are demonstrating a wide range of emerging new capabilities, and many are seeking corporate partners to accelerate their development.
New Rocket Design
Astron Systems is developing a reusable rocket to launch small satellites into space, an idea Eddie Brown began developing while completing his master’s in engineering at Imperial College London.
Small rockets are easier to launch because they experience less air resistance during re-entry. Small rockets also have a higher surface area to volume ratio, which gives them a higher ballistic coefficient. However, one of the biggest challenges is that the propulsion systems of small rockets wear out faster because they need to operate at high speeds. Astron has developed a pump system that significantly reduces wear on shafts and bearings, extending the life of the rocket.
Brown said the small, reusable rocket would bring the cost of launching a satellite into space down to $4,000 per kilogram, significantly cheaper than market leader US Rocket Lab. Astron has raised pre-seed funding so far but is now seeking to raise £2 million to expand its team and test its propulsion system.
Eddie Brown, CEO of Astron Systems. Image courtesy of Astron Systems.
Astron’s competitors in reusable rocket designs include U.S. companies such as Stork Systems, which raised a total of $175 million in a Series B funding round last October, but Brown says the U.K.-based startup is operating in a favorable environment.
“I think the UK has every reason to be a future world leader in many of these areas. Space is a really big part of our economy in terms of satellites and services, we have great talent and engineers coming out of the Oxford and Imperial programmes, and it’s also a lot cheaper to do business here – engineers’ salaries are about half what they are in the US,” Brown says.
Brown said space tech startups outside the U.S. also have the advantage of not being subject to U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) restrictions, which limit the sale of defense and military-related technology.
Another startup working on new engine technology is Star’s Edge, a startup co-founded by Sarah Alao, a PhD student at Cranfield University. The company has patent-pending technology to develop an air-breathing satellite engine that would allow satellites to be launched into the upper atmosphere instead of into space orbit.
Satellites in this range are around 150km to 200km above sea level, compared with low-orbit satellites at altitudes of 1,200km, and could be used to provide much higher resolution Earth observations as well as communications connectivity.
Image courtesy of Stars Edge.
The problem with upper-atmosphere satellites is developing engines that can overcome the resistance of the thin air in the upper atmosphere. The propellant (usually xenon or argon gas) runs out quickly, but using the air itself as a fuel source would provide an inexhaustible supply. Alao says he knows of four other companies working on similar projects, but believes Star’s Edge’s unique design gives it an advantage.
Stars Edge, which has 10 staff members, is seeking to raise a $3.2 million seed round to ramp up staffing and bring its product to market. The team hopes to test the system in 2025.
Repairs in Space
Meanwhile, Space Village, the fourth space startup to appear at the GCV Symposium, has its eye on a different space need. With around 9,900 satellites in orbit and numerous projects underway to put even more space stations into orbit over the next decade, there is a growing need for space services such as delivery, repairs and waste removal. Space Village, a Dutch startup led by CEO Natalia Lemarquis, is developing robots that can carry out repair tasks in space, including on satellites.
“Satellites have solar panels that need to spread their wings, and sometimes these get stuck and can’t provide power. The best satellites in the world can’t function without power. We want to help operators solve this rather than scrapping $700 million satellites,” Lemarquis said. She said there is strong demand from the communications industry for this type of service.
The company has a team of 15 people working on the technology and plans to raise £2 million to build a demonstrator by 2025. It hopes to have its first system in orbit by 2027.
While its first use might be fixing stuck solar panels, the company’s long-term vision is to provide a full range of services across a growing network of space stations and satellites.
“The industry needs ambitious goals. There are seven ongoing projects to build space stations in orbit. These stations need servicing, waste management, cargo delivery, etc.,” Lemarquis says.
