Escape Dynamics Shuts Down
Escape Dynamics, which focused on sending cargo to space on a wave of beamed propulsion, shut down five weeks ago. The following message is now on its website:
After years of research and several technology demonstrations which advanced the state-of-the-art in external propulsion, we concluded that, while microwave propulsion is feasible and is capable of efficiency and performance surpassing chemical rockets, the cost of completing the R&D all the way through operations makes the concept economically unattractive for our team at this time. We also concluded that at current stage technical risks and uncertainty about the cost and timeline are still very high and are not attractive to private investors. Therefore, we decided to discontinue the operation of Escape Dynamics and stopped the R&D effort at the end of 2015.
Through our work we demonstrated end-to-end operation of a prototype thruster where energy was coming from the electric grid, converted into microwave beam via a high power microwave source, and beamed to a thermal thruster which generated efficient thrust. This and other developments represent a step forward towards novel propulsion systems which in the future could enable reusable single-stage-to-orbit flight and reduce the cost of space access beyond what is possible with chemical rockets.
As we are winding down the effort we would like to express our deep gratitude to our visionary advisers, supporters and partners who inspired our team to pursue a moonshot solution to a remarkable challenge of space access. Although we are now discontinuing our external propulsion efforts we are excited about the future of the space industry and about the disruptive innovations that are bound to come.
15 responses to “Escape Dynamics Shuts Down”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Single Stage To Orbit.always gets space engineers.
The concept is really hard to make feasible as a first stage because the thrust to weight of beamed propulsion is too low, but it would make perfect sense for in space applications, but they need a large investment into fixed infrastructure.
Indeed, first-stage rocket engines achieve incredibly high power outputs, and increasing the specific impulse increases the power requirements for a given level of thrust. Even with the reduction in overall propellant required, it would be extremely difficult to deliver enough power to get the vehicle off the ground.
As something to shave a couple km/s off the delta-v required of an upper stage, however, you don’t have anything like the thrust requirements and could use systems like VASIMR or various other electric drives coupled with laser-photovoltaic beamed power that can achieve far greater ranges for the same size transmitter. There’s the straightforward payload boost for launches, an easier reentry for upper stages, and additional utility in pushing tugs around for management of orbital debris or delivering satellites to different orbits or reentry trajectories. And then there’s the potential applications on the moon or asteroids, etc.
I am curious, how focused can a laser beam be over millions, ten of millions or hundreds of millions of kilometres?.
Not relevant to the Escape Dynamics story as they were not using lasers, but the late Robert Forward showed plans for an interstellar laser-pushed light sail that used what amounted to a really huge Fresnel lens to focus the beam even at ranges of 10’s of light years.
What were Escape Dynamics using then?.
“…an interstellar laser-pushed light sail that used what amounted to a really huge Fresnel lens to focus the beam even at ranges of 10’s of light years.”
Too much science-fiction.
Microwaves.
As focused as a telescope image of stars can be. For a diffraction-limited system, the beam divergence is directly proportional to wavelength and inversely proportional to the aperture. That’s why laser has such a major range advantage over microwaves.
Escape Dynamics wasn’t working on laser-photovoltaic beamed power; they were working on phased array microwave beamed power.
…and as I said, you would not need such a thing for an upper stage or orbital tug. I’m describing beamed propulsion systems that would actually be practical sometime in the near future, not what Escape Dynamics was working on.
Agree that beamed power is something that should be worked on for in-space applications. The biggest advantage is that one can start small and scale up. Escape Dynamics’s mistake was attacking the hardest problem – Earth surface to LEO – first. What they were attempting was a bit like Robert Fulton trying to build the Titanic as the first-ever steam-powered craft.
Hopefully, this does not go away. The work that they are doing was certainly innovative.
Seems like this is the type of work nasa should do.
nasa could.
So could any private business that needs to get a leg up on SpaceX.
A hollow booster added around existing rockets might improve lift capacity with little effort, like a hybrid car.