Investigation into a Novel Propellant Delivery System for 1000lbf Class Low-Cost reusable Cube-Sat Boost Liquid Rocket Engines, Year 2

Continued from fy17... Launch services for cube-satellites is a new and rapidly growing market with dozens of commercial players and millions of dollars in government investment in technology development over the past few years. While most cube-satellites are currently delivered to orbit as secondary payloads on large rockets, the need exists for dedicated launchers which can deliver a payload to a precise orbit on-demand. The innovation being developed by this project is a propellant delivery system for 1,000-lbf thrust class liquid rocket engines based on a high performance-to-weight internal combustion piston engine using LOX/CH4 propellants.

This propellant delivery system has the potential to provide better performance-to-weight, performance-to-price, reliability, and reusability than most presently existing technologies.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.