DeltaOrbit was recently selected for Phase 2 of the NATO DIANA programme, which focuses on accelerating the adoption of innovators’ most promising technologies.
In this blog post, we hear from the DeltaOrbit team and explore how they are leveraging their solution to support Allied forces in safeguarding their critical on-orbit infrastructure:
What does your company do and what is the solution you applied to DIANA with?
"We are space propulsion experts and develop engines for an entirely new class of spacecraft. Classical satellites are put into orbit and their limited propulsion systems are just designed to keep them in their initial position. We foresee, that the emerging market of in-space logistics requires radically different approaches. In-Space transportation vehicles or Space Tugs require much more advanced engines, and we provide these."
What problem does your solution solve?
"Satellites represent critical infrastructure and are increasingly threatened by electronic and kinetic attacks from strategic competitors. Interception and evasion manoeuvres between spacecrafts become more common, and while all parties currently avoid permanently disabling assets of opposing forces this can quickly change in a conflict.
We therefore build high-performance engines that make satellites more agile. Assets of allied forces employing our technology can evade threats and react to changing operational environments by quickly re-deploying to new orbits as needed.
Based on our propulsion technology, we build an in-space logistics vehicle for the quick roll-out of constellation satellites, reducing the time-to-market for constellation operators by several years. For the defence market we plan to adapt this vehicle to become a Satellite Mothership for multi-orbit operations, allowing defence actors to intercept, inspect and neutralise threats in orbit. This means that allied space-infrastructure remains operational in an armed conflict and can support multi-domain operations as intended."
How did the company get started?
"We are a spin-out from the rocket propulsion department of the Technical University of Munich. We leverage over a decade of fundamental research into in-space rocket engine technology to build our systems. The classical space industry players are understandably reluctant to adopt new technology, particularly if it is as radically different from legacy systems as ours. Instead of waiting for larger primes to slowly adopt the technology, we decided to take matter into our own hands."
Was your company already positioned as a dual-use company before DIANA? Why did you decide to apply to the programme?
"Space technology is nearly always inherently dual-use, but we did not specifically consider defence use-cases before applying to the DIANA program. The technology was originally developed for missions that actively remove space debris from orbit. But to us it was always clear, that systems that can remove non-cooperative junk from orbit can also be used to clear the orbit of other undesired objects and threats. While this seemed like a remote possibility a few years ago, recent proliferation of anti-satellite weapons has made it clear, that this threat is real and quickly evolving. We decided to give allied forces the means they need to protect their critical on-orbit infrastructure from such attacks."
How does your tech differ from competitors?
"Instead of using common rocket fuels and implement minor improvements to established satellite engines, we decided to follow a drastically different approach. We adopt the high-performance engines used by very large rockets such as Starship, and make them simpler, lighter and small enough for satellites. This required simultaneous innovations on cooling, ignition and storage technologies that we believe only we have managed to master at this point."
What has been your biggest success or milestone to date since starting the DIANA programme? How did participation in DIANA’s programme help make this possible?
"Demonstrating 30-minute continuous operation of our engine has been quite spectacular and proving that our new multi-phase cooling method works will surely send some ripples through the space propulsion industry. But acquiring a first paid-pilot project with a large prime has arguably been the biggest milestone for us, which was also supported by DIANA’s TEVV programme."
What is next on the horizon for your company?
"Our goal is to put our system to the ultimate test: the on-orbit demonstration. There are still numerous challenges to overcome until we reach this milestone, but we are all eager to show what our technology can really do in the real environment of space."