Countdown to satellite power array test
AUCKLAND: When Peter Beck appeared at Auckland University to receive an adjunct professorship in 2019, a teenage Fia Jones crashed the reception.
The New ZealandSamoan physics student had an idea for a new type of solar power array for small satellites, and she wanted to pitch it to the Rocket Lab founder.
‘‘I even asked him to sign an NDA [nondisclosure agreement] first,’’ the now 21yearold says.
The brash move paid off. Mr Beck, formerly of Invercargill, and Ms Jones kept in touch as the latter teamed up with fellow students Max Daniels and William Hunter to work on her concept.
Although working on budget, in the form of a $15,000 convertible note, the trio were able to complete a basic prototype late last year.
At the start of this year, they put their studies on hold to create a startup, Astrix Astronautics, with Ms Jones as sole director and 49% shareholder, and Mr Hunter and Mr Daniels holding the balance.
Yesterday, Outset Ventures’ Deep Tech Fund revealed it had backed a $500,000 ‘‘preseed round,’’ with support from Icehouse Ventures, Sir Stephen Tindall’s K1W1. Collectively, the new investor has taken a 20% stake.
The ‘‘who’’ is just as important as the amount of money, if not more so.
Outset Ventures (formerly LevelTwo), run by Imche Fourie, is the home of a new $10 million Deep Tech fund, bankrolled in part by Mr Beck, that is investing in R&Dheavy earlystage companies.
As well as being central to the preseed funding, Mr Beck has joined Astrix’s advisory board, a oneperson entity, but one that is wellappointed, with the rocket man offering Ms Jones constant business and technical advice.
More, Mr Beck has given Astrix office space inside Rocket Lab’s headquarters.
And he has given the startup a free ‘‘rideshare’’ to space in July on one of his company’s Electron rockets to test its prototype (each Rocket Lab launch typically includes satellites from multiple clients, for a collective cost north of $US5 million).
The company’s coming space launch follows a successful test of its technology earlier this year within a vacuum chamber at Rocket Labs’ Auckland facilities, where Astrix has been based since its formation in February.
What exactly is the idea that Ms Jones once ran by Beck, and has now developed into a prototype that will be tested 500km above the Earth?
Astrix’s technology consists of solar panels, stored within a lightweight power system that inflates once the small spacecraft is launched, providing up to 300W/kg of electricity for up to 500kg satellites, or as Ms Jones puts it, ‘‘from shoeboxsize to fridgesize’’.
The young entrepreneur does not want to reveal too many details, and definitely won’t allow any photos, but Ms Jones did say the company’s system provided more than double the amount of power currently available for such satellites.
That is important, because a typical satellite is only operational for 510% of the time, the balance spent recharging.
The second key feature is, Astrix hopes, reliability, by dint of its ‘‘inflatable’’ system having far fewer moving parts than a traditional solution to unfurl solar panels.
The company’s lighter, flexible inflatable structures are used to deploy the solar panels, replacing the traditional, more bulky, less reliable, mechanical structures that involve an increasingly complex arrangement of moving parts as more panels are added.
While inflatable structures have been used in space for decades, they had not been developed to power systems for smaller spacecraft.
The July launch will be the start of an extended development programme.
Ms Jones estimated it would not be until 2024 until her company’s product was ready for commercial launch. And it would take ‘‘a lot, lot more’’ than $500,000.
Astrix will join three other aerospace companies in residence at Outset Ventures and will be the first startup to shift into newly refurbished laboratory spaces scheduled for completion in July.
‘‘Fia is a passionate entrepreneur with a formidable drive who is developing an elegant solution to a broad problem faced by a massive growth space industry,’’ Outset Ventures CEO Imche Fourie said.
‘‘We are excited to be supporting the dynamic Astrix team and welcome the company into our facilities, where they join other exceptional entrepreneurs, investors and mentors tackling global challenges who are part of New Zealand’s fastgrowing deep tech community.’’
Mr Beck said, ‘‘The pace of the space industry is rapidly accelerating and we need more companies like Astrix setting out to help the thousands of businesses relying on satellites.’’
As for Ms Jones herself , was her family concerned she left university to pursue her startup dream fulltime, albeit in the footsteps of celebrated dropouts like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs?
‘‘I’ve told them I’ve just put my studies on hold,’’ the young CEO says.
‘‘Once Astrix is successful, in a few years, I’ll start calling myself a dropout.’’ — The New Zealand Herald