The booming satellite tv for pc business has been a boon for Morpheus House, which produces a modular, electrical propulsion system for small satellites.
Morpheus has raised a $28 million Series A, with which it intends to construct a manufacturing unit in Dresden, Germany, the place it’s primarily based, and to extend headcount. That can permit the corporate to ramp up manufacturing of its propulsion techniques to fulfill exponentially rising demand within the smallsat market; since 2019, the variety of small satellite tv for pc launches has elevated by almost 450%.
In 2020, Morpheus launched its Nano Area Impact Electrical Propulsion (NanoFEEP) thruster, which it claims is the “smallest and most effective electrical in-space propulsion system” on the planet.
As a result of the system is modular, NanoFEEP thrusters might be mixed to create extra highly effective propulsion techniques to fulfill the wants of a particular satellite tv for pc. As an illustration, a cluster of seven NanoFEEP thrusters known as a MultiFEEP, and a number of MultiFEEP thrusters might be added with the intention to maneuver bigger craft. This enables shoppers to keep away from spending further time and sources growing personalized propulsion techniques for every of its satellites.
Because the launch of NanoFEEP, Morpheus has landed shoppers like Spire World, Antaris House and Rocket Manufacturing unit Augsburg — with loads extra on the way in which.
“Within the final yr, our variety of contracts has elevated by 250% and is on tempo to develop extra,” mentioned István Lőrincz, president of Morpheus, who additionally spoke on the subject finally yr’s TC Classes: House. “The brand new manufacturing unit will assist us meet the wants of our rising person base. We’re going to present by instance that the NewSpace business must implement scalable enterprise and manufacturing options as quick as doable to fulfill the anticipated projections.”
Morpheus has already indicated its nimbleness in two quick years. “One main enchancment we applied lately in our {hardware} got here within the type of a brand new propellant that has improved the efficiency of our propulsion techniques. It’s non-toxic and non-corrosive with zero transport or dealing with restrictions,” mentioned Lőrincz, noting that the previous gas used gallium.
The corporate has additionally developed the Sphere ecosystem, an all-in-one bundle that Morpheus claims differentiates it from its rivals. “We offer a platform-agnostic AI for his or her satellite tv for pc navigation, an software that helps plan all the buyer journey from design to satellite tv for pc operations, mission design software program for constellations, and our world-class propulsion units,” mentioned Lőrincz.
The funding spherical was led by Alpine House Ventures, with participation from Vsquared Ventures, Lavrock Ventures, Airbus Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Pallas Ventures and Techstars Ventures. With hundreds of satellites on account of launch over the following few years, Morpheus has loads extra potential shoppers (and traders) to woo with its system.