Rocket engine power.

Directed energy effects.

Solid Jet:

A collimated high-density beam of solid pellets.

Solid Jet Engine:

A rocket engine designed to generate solid jets.

Directed Kinetic Energy:

Directed energy in the form of pellet kinetic energy.

Kinetic Arbitrage:

The controlled exchange of kinetic energy between spacecraft in different orbits.

Solid jet engine using a thermal battery and propellant recycling through a skimmer to achieve high thermal efficiency.
Solid jet engine using a thermal battery and propellant recycling through a skimmer to achieve high thermal efficiency.

Solid Jet Engine

Accelerates and focuses pellets using a proprietary nozzle.

Solid Jet

A beam of solid pellets. The high density of the solid jet greatly reduces energy losses due to air drag.

Thermal Battery

A packed bed of temperature-resistant media that stores heat during the firing cycle. Thermal batteries can be heated by a torch, an electric heater, or by concentrated sunlight. Multiple thermal batteries can be operated in parallel charge/discharge cycles during firing to recycle heat from propellant recovered by the skimmer.

Skimmer

Like a muzzle device on a firearm, the skimmer “scoops” gas flow at the nozzle exit and recovers it for reuse. A single-baffle skimmer recovers 70%-80% of propellant flow. With three or more baffles, the skimmer can recover over 99% of gas flow. Recovered gas is directed through a thermal battery to recycle heat and a radiator to remove waste heat before the gas is recompressed and sent back to the propellant tank.

Focusing Nozzle

Uses interactions with the propellant gas to focus the pellets without contact between the pellets and the nozzle wall. This allows the focusing nozzle to generate solid jets that travel at orbital speeds without eroding the nozzle wall.

Injector

Essential to generating a high-quality solid jet, the injector is the part that drops pellets into the nozzle at the correct position, velocity and mass flow rate.

Not Like the Other Launchers

A rocket can accelerate a payload at low g-levels to orbital velocity-but it must carry propellant onboard. A gun can accelerate a payload without onboard propellant-but only at high g-levels, and while the payload is inside the barrel. A solid jet engine can accelerate a payload to orbital velocity at low g-levels without a barrel or onboard propellant by transmitting kinetic energy through the atmosphere and into space.