Momentus, a provider of in-space transportation services for satellites, has announced a hosting service for customer payloads, providing access for analytics and in-space demonstrations at a fraction of the cost of designing, building, launching and operating a dedicated smallsat.
Starting in June of 2021, excess capacity will be made available to hosted payload customers on Momentus’ vehicles for customers’ technology demonstrations, qualifications or short-term experiments. These missions will be self-contained and can be hosted by our Vigoride transfer vehicle from the end of the shuttle logistics mission, to the end of its mission life prior to deorbiting.
Two service models are available: Charter and Shuttle Service. The Charter Service will allow payloads to be the sole customer onboard with maximum lifespan, power and data download capacity attributed to the single customer. In the Shuttle Service model, the hosted payload will be a rideshare along with other payloads hosted or deployed from the Vigoride transfer vehicle.
To view full specifications for Hosted Payloads, please access this direct link…
The in-Space collaborative/sharing economy has disruptive ramifications for the industry. By lowering the barriers to entry and increasing the launch cadence, access to space becomes widely affordable for the masses including universities, startups, entrepreneurs and governments. This Satellite-as-a-Service business model sees Momentus providing “white glove” service, with the only customer responsibility being that of the payload.
The scientific applications alone raised an industry-wide proof of concept because of the rising need from scientists and environmentalists to monitor climate change. For example, now research institutes can deploy new solar cell technologies, large unfurlable antennas and payloads requiring up to 1 kW of power or up to 300 kg of mass without having to worry about building their own satellite or operating it on orbit.
As a SpaceX rideshare partner, Momentus is manifested on rides to Sun-synchronous and mid-inclined low Earth orbits, where Vigoride will be deployed to access custom deployment altitudes and orbits in space.
