CubeCab is a distributed technology company designing the Cab-3A, a microlaunch vehicle designed to address largely unmet needs of small satellite operators.
CubeCab was founded as a C-Corp in 2014 by serial entrepreneur and multi-domain engineer Adrian Tymes, after more than a decade of experience in the private space sector, seeing what worked and what did not. Gigantic rockets were and still are the norm due to efficiency, but when giant rockets are the only way to get to space, customers with small budgets and smaller satellites must take what launch opportunities happen to be provided. It is akin to taking a bus or a truck everywhere, an approach that works if you happen to be going where they go, when they go, and you are compatible with everyone else on the ride. Many small satellites - in particular, ones designed to the popular academic standard, CubeSat - fail one or more of these criteria, and so have no means to get to orbit. “If only there was a cab for these CubeSats,” he reasoned, and
thus was CubeCab born.
A decade of work has yielded the Cab-3A design, incorporating simplicity and reliability to enable high launch cadence, able to scale to over 1,000 launches per year should the demand arise. It is an air launch model, effectively an air-to-space missile, so as to potentially be able to launch
from most airports or air bases (with proper spaceport licensing), using F-104s (an alternative Cab-3B design uses F-35s, F-15s, and similar). The rockets are standard solid rocket motors, of the type that has had 100% success rate in commercial use so far this century. Launch preparation (aside from the paperwork) can be done in a few hours. Entire rockets can be manufactured in batches over a few weeks, as opposed to the one-off practices of larger rockets, enabling standard industrial practices such as lot acceptance testing and supply buffers.
In addition to serving unmet and undermet current demand, the Cab-3A’s responsiveness enables new classes of missions. Imagine, if another destructive ASAT is launched, being able to send up active debris remediation before the orbital debris spreads. Or being able to send up a satellite each week, testing and iterating based on last week’s design, until certain hardware is proven in orbit. Or being able to send up satellites hours before a mission that uses those satellites’ comms and/or surveillance, on orbits the opposition can not predict and counter. Or being able to white label a small, secure, private satellite comms network so that, in conjunction with training local operators, a third world government that might not trust American-operated networks need not turn to Chinese or Russian capability. Or just being able to send up a student satellite on a guaranteed date within an academic year, rather than waiting on a variable date two years away.
The Cab-3A currently stands at TRL 4, with interest from many potential customers and identified sales channels once orbital access has been demonstrated. Multiple contracting vehicles are available, including the SBIR Phase III process, stemming from CubeCab’s 2021 Phase I. CubeCab is also seeking a strategic investor or partner in preparation for a Round A capital raise.
Негізгі бет 240612 CubeCab - Micro Launch Vehicle for LEO Deployment of Small Satellites
No video
Пікірлер