Tom Mueller, founder of Impulse Space and former SpaceX propulsion leader, says the company is bidding on lunar landers as in-space transportation becomes its focus.
Impulse Space's Mira orbital transfer vehicle can stay in orbit for five years, and two of the company's three spacecraft came within 1,200 meters of each other during a rendezvous last year.
Mueller says the Deneb engine, which uses 3D-printed parts and a copper combustion liner, should be the highest-performing hydrocarbon engine ever flown, at about 385 seconds of specific impulse.
Former SpaceX engine builder bets on moving cargo between orbits
Impulse Space is building the transport layer between launch and destination, moving cargo from low orbit to higher orbits and the Moon. Mueller carries the engine experience from Merlin and Raptor into a company that makes its own engines, tanks and printed parts. That control lets Impulse iterate quickly on vehicles already flying.
Takeaways
Impulse targets in-space transport, then the Moon. Mueller built the Merlin engine and spent six years on Starship before leaving SpaceX to move payloads around in orbit. Impulse is bidding on lunar landers, and Helios can carry five tons to the Moon on a Falcon 9.
Mira and Helios split the transport job. Mira is an orbital transfer vehicle with eight thrusters of about six pounds each, built to last five years. Helios holds 12 tons of liquid oxygen and methane, gives 15,000 pounds of thrust and can lift a four-ton satellite to geosynchronous orbit.
Deneb engine aims for record hydrocarbon performance. Deneb is pump-fed with oxygen-rich staged combustion, makes about 15,000 pounds of thrust and runs a 1,500 horsepower turbine. Mueller expects about 385 seconds of specific impulse, against about 290 for Mira thrusters, making it the best hydrocarbon engine flown.
Vertical integration and printing speed up iteration. Impulse prints most engine parts, including Novoye alloy parts for hot oxygen on two Velos printers. It also builds its own composite pressure vessels at about half the mass of metal tanks. Mueller says a tight design takes roughly three iterations.
Orbital experience is already accumulating. Three Impulse spacecraft are in orbit, and two came within 1,200 meters of each other in a rendezvous last year. The first craft also had to dodge a collision within three or four months, tracked by the Air Force and LeoLabs.
What Mueller expects next
Compute will need to move to space because it needs only power in and sends data out. Space data centers will take a while to become cost competitive.
The Moon matters more than Mars in the near term. Mueller welcomes NASA's stated plan to build a Moon base and stay there.
Nuclear electric propulsion is the future for the outer planets, where a fission reactor could run experiments and a radio for decades. Solar electric stays important closer to Earth.
Copper will become a constraint that pushes industries toward other technologies.
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