This monumental mission is the perfect place to start looking at other Israeli New Space endeavors. The former-CEO of SpaceIL, Eran Privman, is launching NewRocket. Privman’s latest venture isn’t building spacecraft, but rather focusing on the fuel they require. Addressing the issues of toxicity and logistical problems that plague the current generation of high-performance hypergolic fuels, NewRocket has developed a gel propellant that they assert will improve the overall space propulsion performance in a way that reduces environmental and human risk.
Sky and Space Global, a UK-based company with operations in Israel, was founded by Meir Moalem, Meidad Pariente and Yonatan Sharma. The company has developed technology for a nano-satellite network and hopes to launch its 200-strong “constellation of nano-satellites” this year. Each fully operational satellite weighs in at just 10kg and the network will be able to provide unprecedented global communications capabilities, including search and rescue and disaster management, in addition to data applications and grid monitoring.
ULTRASTAT, another small sat project is the joint effort of the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Israel Space Agency that will get operational support from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab at Caltech. ULTRASTAT is set to launch in 2021/2022 to a super geosynchronous orbit. Once there it will order to observe transient astronomical events, such as supernovae and star-swallowing supermassive black holes, with its special wide-view telescope.
The global New Space phenomena is increasing interest in an orbit servicing of spacecraft for economic reasons as well as the need to reduce space debris created by dead satellites.
Other Israeli companies are focusing on the “periphery” of space travel. Support, logistics and infrastructure are where, in my opinion, most of the real money will be made during the coming space boom. StemRad, is a startup designing protective suits that shield astronauts from space-born radiation, with future aims of suiting up those astronauts that will eventually venture out into deep space. SpacePharma is developing small satellite pharmaceutical labs in which researchers can remotely conduct microgravity experiments. Then there are the starry-eyed adventurers from Desert Mars Analog Ramon Station, or D-MARS. I gotta give them kudos for this clever recursive acronym. The D-MARS project completed a four-day simulation of life on Mars in February. The team lived and worked inside pods in the Negev desert’s Makhtesh Ramon Crater. It’s not for everyone, but apparently, some folks like that sort of vacation.
It’s exciting to see more and more countries, particularly democratic ones, joining the New Space movement. Succeeding in that realm requires local and international funding. BlackFireX Capital, a startup investment fund, intends to invest in Isreali space industry disruptors. BlackFireX’s focus is to promote the future of space flight through cross-sector technological developments in cybersecurity, propulsion, satellites and other aerospace innovations. StellarNova Ltd., an edutainment company pioneering STEM multimedia content for kids, partnered with SpaceIL in 2018 to produce “The Little Spacecraft,” a children’s book and range of products based on Beresheet. Their goal was to inspire the next generation to pursue the fields of space technology and exploration. StellarNova’s mission is to foster kids’ love of science so that they may become tomorrow’s innovators.