impulse room
Relativity Space has not launched a single rocket, and Impulse Space has never tested any of its thrusters in space. Nevertheless, the two California-based companies announced their intent on Tuesday to launch an ambitious mission that will land on the surface of Mars in less than three years.
This would be the first-ever commercial mission to Mars, and normally such a claim could be dismissed as absurd. But this announcement – no matter how bold – is probably worth taking seriously from the companies and players involved.
Founded in 2015, Relativity has raised more than $1 billion and is expected to launch its tiny Terran 1 rocket later this year. The company, which plans to 3D print the majority of its vehicles, is already deep into the development of the fully reusable Terran R rocket. This booster is intended to be slightly more powerful than SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and would carry the commercial mission to Mars. Relativity plans to have the Terran R rocket ready for launch in 2024, with the Mars payload flying to Mars on its debut mission in late 2024.
Impulse Space is newer, less than a year old, but not without experienced engineers. The company was founded by Tom Mueller, the first employee hired at SpaceX and leader of the propulsion division in more than a decade. Its engines power the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon vehicles. Mueller considers the launch a “problem solved” and is developing a line of non-toxic, low-cost thrusters to serve the space propulsion market.
“This is a whole new era of spaceflight and we want to be positioned to provide reliable, low-cost propulsion in space,” Mueller said in an interview with Ars. “We want to do it all — orbital, lunar, interplanetary.”
The Conception of the Mission
The Mars mission was conceived last year when Zach Dunn, Relativity’s vice president of engineering and manufacturing, contacted Mueller. The two were old colleagues. Mueller had hired Dunn at SpaceX in 2006, where the intern was soon put in charge of testing the engines and then the overall propulsion system for the company’s early Falcon rockets. Relativity wanted to impress with its first Terran R mission, and Mueller rose to the challenge.
The companies devised a mission in which the Terran-R vehicle would boost a Mars Cruise Vehicle developed by Impulse Space on a trajectory to Mars. Upon reaching the red planet, the lander would separate from the cruise phase. This lander would use aeroshell technology developed by NASA for its Mars Phoenix lander and other vehicles and use the same input speed and angle as the NASA missions. The Impulse Space lander would then land propellingly under the power of four thrusters, similar to a quadcopter. With this mission design, Impulse aims to bring tens of kilograms of scientific payload to the surface of Mars.
