Gravitics is currently developing a prototype space module called StarMax. The latter can reach a diameter of 7.6 meters and a volume of 400 m3, corresponding to 40% of the total volume of the International Space Station. Obviously, such a project attracts many attentions: earlier in the week, the start-up was able to announce that it had signed an agreement with NASA to remedy the current shortage of qualification methods for the creation of larger spacecraft .
The tests supported by NASA range from thermal, vacuum, vibration and acoustic qualification to ensure that the spacecraft can survive a difficult launch and complicated environment in space.
A long-term military project?
“We joke that you want to be ready to supply modules from Stoke to Starship, from three meters in diameter to eight. We’re excited to work with groups like NASA to ensure we can develop these modules and put them into orbit as soon as the launch tools are ready, and customers are ready to receive them” the company’s CEO Colin Doughan was able to announce in a recent interview.
For its part, the US Space Force, directly affiliated with the Pentagon, is actively seeking any technology allowing it to benefit from better reactivity in space, particularly in the case of a missile or an enemy satellite. Thus, last year, the Pentagon ordered a high-responsiveness mission test from two different American companies, which was crowned with success (Victus Nox). So, are we heading, with Gravitics, towards the very first space station dedicated to military activity? Whatever happens, the Gravitics project seems to generate a lot of interest, since it could make it possible to carry out a whole bunch of experiments in microgravity that cannot be carried out on Earth.