TransAstra

TransAstra is developing game-changing technologies in the areas of orbital logistics and space resources to enable massive growth to existing and entirely new space industries.

Space UtilitiesSpace Data CentreOrbital Data CentreRefilling StationMiningIn-Space Transportation

Created: 2024-07-26

Updated: 2024-07-26

Classification

Space Utilities

Category

Space Data Centre

Fields

Orbital Data Centre

Status

Concept

First launch

Not announced

AstroCloud data processing in space.

Classification

In-Space Transportation

Category

Space Tug
Space Situational Awareness (SSA)
Resources - Asteroid Mining
Propellant Refuel Station
Space Mining
In-Space Manufacturing
ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization)
Propellant Refilling
Active Debris Removal (ADR)

Fields

Refilling Station
Mining
In-Space Transportation

Status

Development

First launch

Not announced

New kind of aerospace company dedicate to building the “transcontinental railroad of space”.

Today: TransAstra is moving satellites between orbits with space tugs powered by the Sun and propelled with water. Tomorrow: We'll sustainably harvest resources from the Moon and asteroids and change the course of history.

NASA Selected NIAC Phase III for Mini Bee Prototype to Demonstrate the Apis Mission Architecture and Optical Mining. Technology This flight demonstration mission concept proposes a method of asteroid resource harvesting called optical mining. Optical mining is an approach for excavating an asteroid and extracting water and other volatiles into an inflatable bag. Called Mini Bee, the mission concept aims to prove optical mining, in conjunction with other innovative spacecraft systems, can be used to obtain propellant in space. The proposed architecture includes resource prospecting, extraction and delivery.

TransAstronautica, a startup founded by Joel Sercel, the former Momentus chief technology officer, is raising money for a competing space logistics venture. TransAstra’s business plan starts with transportation for satellites in orbit and extends to refueling rockets with resources harvested from asteroids.

ReOrbit and TransAstra sign spacecraft development and logistics contracts. Under these contracts, TransAstra will provide mission definition and engineering analysis for TransAstra's Worker Bee orbital transfer vehicles to deliver ReOrbit's customer satellites to Low Earth Orbit, Medium Earth Orbit, Geostationary Orbit, and Cis-Lunar orbits.

In December 2022, announced that it has received two grants—a NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award and a DoD Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) award—to advance its space debris removal and awareness tech. Right now, TransAstra is focused on space sustainability. It’s building a space tug called Worker Bee that can transfer satellites between orbits using a water-fueled and sun-powered propulsion system, and it operates a proprietary telescope software, called Sutter, that allows telescopes to better identify near-Earth asteroids. Ultimately, though, the Los Angeles-based startup hopes to turn its focus toward sustainable Moon and asteroid mining.

• Trash capture: The first of the two grants was awarded through NASA’s Ignite program, which provides $150k grants at Phase I to help prepare technology for commercialization. The funding will go towards developing an inflatable orbital debris capture system called the Mini Bee Capture Bag. The capture bag will be designed to capture debris of any shape. The prototype will be designed to capture debris around 10cm in diameter, but the company says it will be able to scale to capture much larger objects.
• Eyes in space: TransAstra has partnered with ground telescopes to implement its Sutter telescope technology, which uses Optimized Matched Filter Tracking (OMFT) to help telescopes identify very faint, fast-moving objects in the sky. The company will use the DoD grant to tweak this program to work from space. Ideally, in the end, the US Space Force will be able to add Sutter technology to its spacecraft to cheaply and easily augment its SSA capabilities in orbit.

TransAstra’s breakthrough Sutter space telescope technology is 300,000 times more effective at finding dark moving objects in space than conventional telescopes. This will be a game changer for finding debris and traffic in Earth orbit and for finding the thousands of Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) that will usher in a gold rush to space.

WORKER BEE™ SPACE TUG

TransAstra's Worker Bee space tug disrupts legacy markets with a faster, safer and more affordable way to carry satellites and other payloads to where they need to go in space.

Propelled by TransAstra's Omnivore™ solar thermal rocket engines, Worker Bee can position a constellation of satellites, each to its orbital slot, ten times faster at one-fifth the price of electric or microwave propelled vehicles. This reduces the time it takes to deploy a constellation from months to days, saving our customers millions of dollars. Worker Bee supports many other space logistics businesses, including resource harvesting from asteroids and the Moon, removing debris from orbit, and hosting customer payload.

Space logistics startup TransAstra won a NASA contract to manufacture a bag to capture orbital debris, SpaceNews, 2023-08-29.

• Under the $850,000 Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research contract, TransAstra will build an inflatable capture bag and demonstrate on the ground how the device, which uses inflatable struts to open and close, would envelop a noncooperative object.
• A recent study completed by TransAstra and space infrastructure startup ThinkOrbital proposes transporting debris or defunct satellites to an on-orbit processing plant.
• TransAstra and Think Orbital propose launching capture bags in TransAstra Worker Bee spacecraft. After moving into the orbit of the targeted debris, the Worker Bee would transport the debris to ThinkOrbital’s ThinkPlatform.

Worker Bee 1

A rideshare compatible vehicle that carries satellite and payloads into low-Earth orbit

• CAPACITY - Up to 200kg of payload mass
• DESIGNED FOR - Low Earth Orbit
• PROPELLED BY OMNIVORE 1
  • Newton-class thrust level
  • Built using state-of-the-art materials
  • Engineered for low-cost and rapid development with large design margins
  • Optimized for H2O propellent, also runs on N2H4 or NH3
  • Evolves to orbital reusability and refilling of propellant tanks on-orbit
• CAPABILITY
  • Can launch an entire 96 satellite constellation in one mission (24 vehicles carrying four 50kg satellites each)
  • Launched with customer payload as rideshare (e.g., SpaceX Falcon 9 or ESPA Grande Rideshare), or dedicated small launcher (e.g. ABL or STOKE)

Worker Bee 2

A larger more powerful evolution of the Worker Bee 1 designed for medium, geosynchronous and lunar orbits

• CAPACITY - Up to 2,000kg of payload mass
• DESIGNED FOR - LEO, MEO, GEO and lunar orbit
• PROPELLED BY OMNIVORE 2
  • Multi-newton thrust levels
  • Next generation proprietary materials
  • Engineered for high performance and low recurring cost
  • Optimized for for a variety of propellents
  • Reusable and refillable propellant tanks from day 1
• CAPABILITY
  • A larger, more powerful evolution of the Worker Bee 1 that can reach and deliver payloads at higher orbit
  • Can be launched three vehicles at a time per medium class rocket
  • Launched aboard a partner's rocket
  • Includes an advanced navigation and communication package for interplanetary robotic missions

Worker Bee 3

The ultimate space tug capable of delivering massive payloads throughout deep space

• CAPACITY - Up to 30,000 kg of payload mass
• DESIGNED FOR - Deep space logistics and massive satellite delivery
• PROPELLED BY OMNIVORE 3
  • The ultimate in-space transportation system
  • Third generation proprietary materials
  • Near nuclear rocket level performance at 1% the cost
  • Delta-V beyond 10 km/s with 10 ton payloads
  • Optimized for H2O, N2H4 NH3 or LH2 propellent
  • Launch with 14 tons of LH2, refill tanks with 100 tons of asteroid water
  • Delivered two massive GEOs on a single launch in days
• CAPABILITY
  • Launched aboard a partner's heavy launch vehicle (Blue Origin New Glenn or SpaceX Starship)
  • Includes an advanced navigation and communication package for deep space missions

GEO AND CISLUNAR SATELLITE DEPLOYMENT
Worker Bee is the fastest and most affordable way to deliver satellites to GEO. While electric propulsion systems can take several months from GTO to GEO, Worker Bee can do it in a few weeks at a fraction of the cost. Electric propulsion can take a year to get a satellite to lunar orbit, while Worker Bee can do it in a few months.

PAYLOAD HOSTING
Worker Bees are full-service, purpose-built spacecraft that can operate across LEO, MEO, GEO, cislunar orbits and in deep space, making them extremely adaptable throughout the entire duration of an operation. TransAstra handles all aspects of the spacecraft design, manufacture, launch, and operation of the mission, allowing industrial and government customers to focus on their missions of operating the payload rather than the nuts and bolts of space logistics.

SPACE DOMAIN AND ORBITAL DEBRIS AWARENESS

Our Sutter Telescope System finds, tracks, and characterizes spacecraft, asteroids and orbital debris more efficiently than any other system.

Once flown in space, our technology will track objects as small as 5 cm throughout cislunar space. It will also be 300,000 times more cost effective than legacy telescope systems. In its first six months of in-space operations, our Sutter Ultra system will find 300 times more asteroids than humans have ever located.

Using our Sutter technology, TransAstra can provide unparalleled space domain awareness data and find enough near Earth asteroids to trigger a gold rush to the asteroids. We can also locate and track space debris more effectively than any other system. Once located, our Mini-Bee uses our patented technologies to capture and process Low Earth Orbit debris.

TransAstra Wins Space Force Phase 2 Contract for Development of Groundbreaking Turn Key Telescope Observatory System, 2023-08-08.

OMNIVORE SOLAR THERMAL ROCKET

Omnivore is based on a variety of patented, patents pending, and trade secret technologies. Propellant, typically water vapor, is injected into a proprietary solar absorber system located at the focus of a high performance solar concentrator. The solar absorber superheats the gas at high pressure. As with any rocket engine with only one outlet in its flow path, the gas exits at the nozzle, generating thrust to propel the spacecraft.

Without the expensive and heavy solar panels needed by electric propulsion, and with the ability to use nearly any volatile fluid as propellant, Omnivore provides a 10X higher thrust-to-weight ratio than electric propulsion. Without the danger and risk of chemical rocket systems or the cost and low thrust of electric systems, Omnivore provides the best possible combination of fast, clean and affordable travel through space.

OPTICAL MINING™ FOR SPACE RESOURCE HARVESTING

The Moon and near-Earth asteroids with diameters less than 100m hold the potential for trillions of dollars of harvestable resources. Our patented technology for mining in-space resources is the key that will unlock the resources needed to provide the foundation for interplanetary travel, logistics and industry for decades to come.

Optical Mining™ uses concentrated sunlight to excavate and extract propellant feedstocks from volatile-rich asteroids, moons, and planetary surfaces. Optical Mining will enable TransAstra to harvest thousands of tons of water and other materials for rocket propulsion in space within a decade, an opportunity for massive cost reduction for deep space human exploration and space industrialization.

Commercial Development of Active Debris Remediation (ADR) Services

Mini Bee Capture Bag for Active Debris Remediation

• The exponential growth of the number of satellites and debris in orbit drives an urgent need for orbital debris removal for both the public and the private sector.
• TransAstra is developing a breakthrough inflatable capture bag technology, the Mini Bee™ Capture Bag (MBCB), which provides a solution to the Active Debris Removal problem.
• MBCB will enable object capture and deorbit missions with lower complexity and cost than any alternative and fills the commercial need of protecting the burgeoning space economy from the rapid proliferation of dangerous orbital debris.
• MBCB is superior because it can capture non-cooperative spacecraft or debris of arbitrary shape without hardware accommodations such magnetic components or grapple fixtures. For these reasons, satellite manufacturers and constellation developers are turning to TransAstra’s MBCB as a solution.
• TransAstra has begun collaboration on the MBCB with various private companies based on its potential to solve the orbital debris problem for multiple types of objects. MBCB’s flexibility makes it widely applicable to a broad range of debris removal and hazardous objects capture scenarios.
• Initially suitable for flight on a ride-share class, in-space logistics vehicle launched into LEO, the MCBC system provides a deployable inflatable capture bag that is capable of fully enclosing small spacecraft for repositioning and de-orbiting.
• MBCB technology can later scale to much larger sizes and can thus serve growing commercial and defense needs with no technical changes to the architecture. This SBIR proposal matures the inflatable capture bag and proximity operations technology of MBCB.

Status Comment / Notes

As of early 2023, the focus is on space tugs and space domain awareness telescopes.

Created: 2019-01-22

Updated: 2024-03-09