Jeff Thornburg contributed to the development of SpaceX’s most potent rocket engine from a government research study.At his business Portal Space Systems, he is now attempting to accomplish the same goal by transforming a NASA-rejected concept into powerful propulsion for the upcoming generation of spacecraft.
Founded in 2021, Portal announced a $50 million Series A investment round on Thursday, valuing the business at $250 million.Along with Booz Allen Ventures, ARK Invest, AlleyCorp, and FUSE, Geodesic Capital and Mach33 led the round.
The business is working on a technique known as solar thermal propulsion.Modern satellite engines either burn chemical fuel or harness solar energy to generate electricity, which powers low-power yet effective thrusters. Instead, Portal’s engines would focus solar heat to heat propellant and propel the spacecraft forward at a high speed.
Since the 1960s, the technology has been studied in government research facilities, most recently as a potential means of launching a probe into interstellar space, but it has not yet reached orbit. In the next two years, Thornburg and co-founders Ian Vorbach and Prashaanth Ravindran intend to change that.
Thornburg started his career in the U.S. Air Force, where he worked on a project to create full-flow staged combustion, an effective and potent next-generation rocket engine.Ten years later, Elon Musk enticed him to join SpaceX to develop those ideas into the Raptor engine that drives the company’s enormous Starship.
He returned to propulsion after working at Stratolaunch and Amazon’s Project Kuiper.
A New Kind Of Rocket Engine
According to Thornburg, solar thermal power is the next logical advancement in rocket technology.In the late 1990s, NASA conducted a thorough analysis of the technology and came to the conclusion that it often offers greater performance.According to a 2003 assessment commissioned by NASA, it was not developed further because there was not enough demand for in-space transportation.
It was easier to simply employ a more powerful rocket rather than invest in inspace propulsion because satellites and space probes were flying much less frequently back then.That calculation has now been reversed, as thousands of new satellites are launched annually and the U.S. military need spacecraft that can swiftly move between orbits in order to monitor or threaten adversaries.
“Moving slowly in orbit is no longer acceptable,” Thornburg told TechCrunch. China is circling our spaceship, you know. We require comparable competence.
According to Aaron Burnett, CEO of the aerospacefocused venture firm Mach33, satellite operators would require less expensive ways to maneuver spacecraft out of each other’s way in a future where we might see millions of satellites in orbit around the Earth offering communications and computing services.According to Burnett, Portal will develop into a “space mobility primary,” offering propulsion to a range of users.
The Path To Orbit
The business must get its technology operating in orbit in order to get there.Another prototype spacecraft is scheduled to launch in October. Last week, its flight electronics were sent on a trial voyage around the earth.With the launch of its first SuperNova spacecraft, which Thornburg refers to as a “fighter jet for orbit,” scheduled for 2027, the business will show off a functional prototype of its engine.
The company’s combination solar concentrator and nozzle, the Hex thruster, is a result of recent developments in materials science and additive manufacturing.
Nuclearpowered rockets are seen by rocket enthusiasts as the next step toward enabling transportation throughout the solar system, but the legal and regulatory obstacles involved in developing such a system make it unfeasible for a business.
However, Portal’s engine also gives the business an advantage in developing a nuclear thermal propulsion system, which essentially replaces solar heat with reactor heat. Many of the moving components in orbit will have been tested by Thornburg’s team by the time the U.S. government is prepared to construct it.
By attempting to construct a $2 billion nuclearsafe ground test lab, I will be able to assist mature this technology considerably faster on orbit than we ever can,” Thornburg stated.
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