Enlarge / Here’s a preliminary design of a Mars lander to be built by Impulse Space.
Impulse space
Relativity Space has not launched a single rocket, and Impulse Space has never tested any of its thrusters in space. However, on Tuesday the two Californian companies announced their intention to launch an ambitious mission that will land on the surface of Mars in less than three years.
This will be the first commercial mission to Mars, and normally such a claim can be safely dismissed as absurd. But this announcement — bold as it is — is probably worth taking seriously because of the companies and players involved.
Founded in 2015, Relativity has raised more than $1 billion and is due to launch its tiny Terran 1 rocket later this year. The company, which aims to 3D print the majority of its vehicles, is already deep into development on the Terran R rocket, which is fully operational. This booster is designed to be slightly more powerful than SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and will carry the commercial mission to Mars. Relativity plans to have the Terran R rocket ready for launch in 2024, with the Mars payload flying on its debut mission at the end of the 2024 Mars window.
Impulse Space is newer, less than a year old, but not without experienced engineers. The company was founded by Tom Mueller, the first employee hired at SpaceX and head of propulsion for more than a decade. Its engines power the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon vehicles. Muller considers launch a “solved problem” and is developing a line of non-toxic, low-cost thrusters to serve the space propulsion market.
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“This is a whole new era of spaceflight, and we want to be positioned to provide reliable, low-cost propulsion in space,” Mueller said in an interview with Ars. “We want to do it all — orbital, lunar, interplanetary.”
The mission concept
The Mars mission was conceived last year when Relativity’s vice president of engineering and manufacturing, Zach Dunn, contacted Mueller. They were old colleagues. Mueller had hired Dunn at SpaceX in 2006, where the intern was soon put in charge of engine testing and then the overall propulsion system for the company’s early Falcon rockets. Relativity wanted to make a splash with its first Terran R mission, and Mueller accepted the challenge.
The companies envisioned a mission in which the Terran-R vehicle would propel a Mars Cruise Vehicle developed by Impulse Space into a trajectory toward Mars. Upon reaching the red planet, the lander will separate from the cruise stage. This lander will use the aeroplane technology developed by NASA for the Mars Phoenix lander and other vehicles and will use the same speed and angle of entry as NASA missions. The Impulse Space lander will then propulsively land under the power of four thrusters, similar to a quadcopter action. With this mission design, Impulse plans to deliver tens of kilograms of scientific payload to the Martian surface.
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