Startup Working on Spacecraft Designed to Eat Dead Satellites for Fuel

A British startup called Magdrive claims to have developed a satellite that uses solid metal as a source of fuel. Its founder says it could even one day be used to clean up space junk — by gobbling up dead satellites and using them for propulsion.

As CNN reports, the company came up with a propulsion system, dubbed Warlock, that ionizes solid metal, instead of current electric systems that generate power by ionizing pressurized gas.

The goal is to balance efficiency with power output.

"Chemical propulsion has very high thrust, but its efficiency — or its miles per gallon, if you like — is very poor," Magdrive founder Mark Stokes told CNN. "On the other hand, electric propulsion systems these days have the complete opposite characteristics. They have very low thrust, but excellent efficiency, excellent miles per gallon."

"We’re building the first system of its kind that has the best of both worlds," he added. "It is electric propulsion, but it has a magnitude improvement in thrust, with a magnitude reduction in volume and mass."

While their system, which can use cheap and widely available copper as an energy source, isn't refuelable just yet, the company is hoping to eventually use the metal of retired satellites and other space junk as fuel.

In other words, it'd be a clever solution to our growing space junk problem.

The added benefit is that the amount of weight that needs to be launched into space could be reduced significantly as the system wouldn't need to lug its own propellant from Earth.

It's an exciting plan — but it's still entirely hypothetical.

"The benefit of this is that we’ll be able to close the loop on the new space age economy by using resources which are already there," Stokes told CNN.

Besides, as the broadcaster points out, you'd presumably need to gain the permission of the owner of the space junk to use it as a free resource.

"Decommissioned satellites are uncontrollable and often tumbling, making retrieval extremely difficult," University of Southampton associate professor in astronautics MinKwan Kim, who has worked with the firm, told CNN. "Capturing and securing them requires complex maneuvering, a technology still in its infancy."

Magdrive is hoping to launch its first prototype of its Warlock system in June. Instead of feasting on old space junk, it'll attempt to ionize solid metal as a proof of concept.

"We’re building a standardized piece of hardware which can fit on board any satellite — so pretty much anyone in the entire space industry," Stokes said. "This includes a variety of different applications, from Earth observation to satellite servicing to communications."

However, even that isn't a perfect solution. Due to the possibility of surface contamination, the system's overall performance could degrade quickly. The metal itself could also have its atomic crystal structure altered, which could also affect how well it performs.

Nonetheless, hypothetical or not, it's a fascinating concept that could one day address a very real problem.

More on space junk: Man Wakes Up, Finds That Large Chunk of SpaceX Rocket Has Crashed Into His Garden

The post Startup Working on Spacecraft Designed to Eat Dead Satellites for Fuel appeared first on Futurism.