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There are many hypotheses about what capabilities will need to arrive online for the develop space industry to flourish , but two of the biggest concern in - blank mobility and in - space fueling . To have a fully independent infinite economy , proponents argue , we ’ll take to be able to move satellites around in space and we ’ll ask a way to refuel them .
Argo Space Corporationaims to contribute to both these capabilities with a reusable orbital transferee fomite that can be refueled with water harvested from the moon . ( Oh , and Argo Space wants to do the lunar water harvesting , too . )
The startup , which was founded by three brothers who all formerly influence at SpaceX , is developing an orbital transportation spacecraft called the Argonaut , name for the famed navigation heroes of Greek mythology . Alongside this , Argo Space says it also develop a method to extract water system from lunar regolith , which could then be used as part of an off - planet fuel - creation process .
Its farsighted - full term visual sense is to work a dependable logistics vehicle to blank space : one that can take a customer load to an intended scope , refuel , then do it all over again .
“ That ’s more of a fundamental change in computer architecture , ” Argo CEO Robert Carlisle articulate in a recent interview . “ We ’re not just build an expendable kick stage . Those have subsist in some form for a long time . We ’re really endeavor to say , let ’s open up accession to novel electron orbit for small and big spacecraft . ”
The company closed a $ 2 million pre - seed round last April ; even since then , rival on both the in - space mobility side and the lunar water extraction side has arrest live . But Carlisle said that it ’s the integrated sight of a reclaimable , refuelable spacecraft that set Argo aside from its peers .
Investors are behind this vision : Argo raised another $ 7.9 million led by Crosslink Capital , with involvement from existing investors Stellar Ventures and Type One Ventures .
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The ability to get at different orbits and to have dynamic missions in space would be nothing less than radical for spacecraft operations . Carlisle said the company has seen growing commercial-grade demand for in - space mobility , so the bulk of the funding will go toward Argonaut development and fully fund a subscale presentment mission that is plan to launch in the quaternary one-fourth of next year . That mission is intended to demonstrate the Argonaut ’s actuation system and the high - delta quintuplet , or velocity change , capability operating beyond LEO .
“ A differentiating capability for us is our unique propulsion system , and actually providing a lot of delta - V going out to MEO , GEO , and cislunar space , ” Carlisle said .
The Argonaut uses a water plasm pusher , a less common propulsion system that he said ply a “ just balance ” of jab and efficiency . As the name suggests , the thruster uses water as a propellant ; the water is then ionize into plasma to bring forth thrust . Using a organization that is based around body of water is decisive to the inauguration ’s overall plan to refuel the Argonaut using urine reap on the moonlight .
Even after extract the water , however , Argo Space will require to chance a way to get it from the lunar Earth’s surface to orbit . Carlisle admitted that export mass from the surface of the moon is a challenge : “ Lunar exportation is definitely a challenging piece of the architecture for everyone right now , but several of the lander supplier are talking about exportation capabilities . Blue Origin and SpaceX , they ’re working primarily on human landing systems , so they have a much more intense and large-minded curing of requirements related to that , but those guys and others are working on export capabilities as well . ”
Although the Argonaut subscale demonstration mission is happening first , that does n’t mean the lunar water descent patch has been put on the back burner : Since close its pre - seed daily round last April , the company has validate its novel lunar water extraction method using sham regolith , showing it can excerpt water even when it is barely present : concentrations as scurvy as 1 part per thousand .
In the near condition , Carlisle articulate the party plans to refuel Argonauts using water launch from Earth , which would be find by terminus in depressed Earth sphere . These storage will look like a simpler , cheaper interpretation of the Argonaut , he said .
