Firefly Space Systems

FireFly Space Systems
Industry Aerospace
Founded January 2014 in Hawthorne, California[1]
Founders Tom Markusic
PJ King[2]
Headquarters Cedar Park, Texas, USA
Key people
 Tom Markusic (CEO)
PJ King (COO)
Number of employees
 43[3]
Website http://www.fireflyspace.com/

FireFly Space Systems[4][5] is a private aerospace firm based in Austin, Texas that intends to launch small and medium-sized satellites to orbit. They are proponents of NewSpace: a movement in the aerospace industry that aims to increase space access through technical advances to reduce launch costs and lessening of regulations and logistic restrictions arising from dependence on national space institutions.[3]

History

Firefly was formed in January 2014[4] by Tom Markusic, PJ King[2] and a small group of entrepreneurs who self-funded the company. It had grown to 30 employees by August 2014, and 43 by November 2014.[3] Firefly has office and engineering facilities in Austin, Texas and Hawthorne, California and has purchased 215 acres (87 ha) of land for an engine test site in Briggs, Texas, 50 miles (80 km) north of Austin.[6]

Markusic has a background in propulsion engineering, and worked at other NewSpace companies including SpaceX—where he was manager of the SpaceX Texas rocket test facility—and has "also held senior posts at Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin."[6]

The company name came from Markusic after sitting on his back porch watching fireflies, and realizing that one day in the future the sky above Earth might look like that as spacecraft are ferrying people to Mars.[3]

In September 2014, Firefly announced that it would move its headquarters from Hawthorne, California to Austin-suburb Cedar Park, Texas.[1] By November, it had relocated to Texas.[3]

In 2014, Firefly purchased fiber-winding equipment for manufacturing composite cryotanks that will be built using an out-of-autoclave process. Prototype tanks were tested at Marshall Space Flight Center in mid-2014.[6]

The Firefly Alpha design was revealed in July 2014.[4]

As of November 2014, Firefly planned to be cash-flow positive by 2018 based on anticipated small-satellite business.[3]

Aerospike engine

Firefly proposes to utilize a lightweight annular aerospike rocket engine and self-pressurizing propellant in order to improve the payload fraction delivered to orbit.

The engine is a "'plug cluster aerospike', a type of annular aerospike engine with an array of ten small conventional methane-fueled rockets arranged in a ring, thrusting against a plug-shaped structure. The thrusters’ force against the carefully shaped plug provides [a more optimal] propulsive effect on the launch vehicle, while the open exhaust lets the aerospike engine’s exhaust 'self-tune' against" the different ambient pressures that the rocket will experience at increasingly higher altitudes during a terrestrial launch.[3]

Conventionally, rockets use pressurized reserves of an inert gas to 'backfill' propellant tanks, in order to maintain tank pressure as the tank voids. However, the proposed aerospike throttled thrust architecture uses autogenous pressure-fed methane/liquid oxygen propellant. Pressure is maintained by the propellant alone, thus removing the weight requirement, complexity, and additional failure modes of inert gas reserves.[3][6]

Firefly cools the truncated spike structure—on which impinges the rocket exhaust of the ten surrounding conventional rocket engines—by pumping the liquid methane fuel through the spike, turning the heated fuel into a hot gas, some of which is then used to generate the gas necessary to pressurize the fuel tank. This avoids the traditional means of using helium inert gas for tank pressurization, and leaves slightly more burnable fuel in the fuel tank. The plug cluster spike itself is static.[3]

Additionally methane/liquid oxygen is clean burning, with no significant coking, hence reducing the need for engine refurbishment between firings. This should allow each stage to be reused, if it can be recovered in serviceable condition, resulting in further cost savings on subsequent flights. Methane is also relatively inexpensive compared to more conventional RP1 (kerosene) and produces slightly higher Isp.

Launch vehicles

Firefly Alpha

The FireFly Alpha (Firefly α[3])is a launch vehicle designed to carry light—approximately 400 kilograms (880 lb)—satellites to orbit. Projected launch cost is $9 million for orbital payloads.[6]

It utilizes the FRE-1/FRE-2 aerospike engines and a lightweight carbon composite structure to reduce launch weight, resulting in improved payload fraction.[3]

Technical description and specifications

Performance
Propulsion
Stage 1
Stage 2
Structures

Firefly Beta

Firefly β (Beta) is preliminarily planned to be a multicore design, grouping α (Alpha) rockets together as a group.[3]

Technical description and specifications

Performance

Production

Firefly intends to build and test its engines at a single location in Texas approximately 20-minutes drive from company headquarters in Cedar Park, Texas, and intend to avoid the "large outsourced supplier structure" common in traditional aerospace companies. A subcontractor will build the carbon-fiber rocket bodies and tanks.[3]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Hawthorne-based rocket company to move to Texas". Daily Breeze. 2014-09-14. Retrieved 2014-12-03.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbntJeYQvqg
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 Hutchinson, Lee (2014-11-30). "Firefly Space Systems charges full-speed toward low Earth orbit". ars Technica. Archived from the original on 2014-12-03. Retrieved 2014-12-01.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Aron, Jacob (8 July 2014). "Next generation of space cowboys get ready to fly". Newscientist.com. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  5. ↑ "Firefly Space Systems unveils Alpha launch vehicle design with aerospike engine". Gizmag.com. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 6.9 6.10 Morring, Frank, Jr. (2014-08-25). "SpaceX Alum Goes After Falcon 1 Market With Firefly". Aviation Week. Archived from the original on 2014-12-03. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  7. ↑ "Firefly α - Firefly Space Systems". Fireflyspace.com. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 "Firefly α | Firefly Space Systems". Fireflyspace.com. Retrieved 5 October 2014.

External links