To everyone’s surprise, the American start-up Impulse Space announced yesterday its first project to send a mission to land on the surface of the red planet… thanks to a launch and a platform designed jointly with Relativity Space. A company that is just as inexperienced as the start-up.
However, if the diary makes you think, you shouldn’t laugh too quickly.
Pulse to Mars
This is an announcement that does not lack spice. While many observers have grown accustomed to SpaceX’s ambitious agendas and corporate goals to “colonize Mars”, private start-ups jumping in is not (yet) the norm.
Thus, the announcement of Impulse Space made yesterday surprised: a robotic mission with a Martian transfer vehicle and a lander dedicated to the red planet, all in partnership for takeoff before 2029 with Relativity Space and its Terran-R launcher .
This is indeed the first announcement of a private Mars mission to take off from Cape Canaveral. Impulse Space will undoubtedly offer opportunities for agencies and other companies to take their payloads to the surface of Mars, with an announced goal: to prepare for the future arrival of manned missions.
Wait, who are you?
If you’re not totally addicted to space news from American start-ups, you might have missed the Impulse Space training… It only took place last year! Its founder is none other than the famous Tom Mueller, one of Elon Musk’s very first teammates when the latter embarked on the SpaceX adventure.
Mueller had led the team that gave birth to the Merlin engine (which powers the Falcon 9 launch vehicle), before leading the division to produce the Draco, SuperDraco and Raptor engines. He had therefore left SpaceX in 2021 to found a “unicorn”, Impulse Space, already valued at more than a billion dollars. The company’s stated goal is to provide transportation systems in the inner Solar System. Promise kept if this Martian lander sees the light of day…
Earth to Terran-R
Relativity Space is almost as poorly known. The company has been talked about a lot since 2016, with the promise to put its famous “3D printed launchers” into service, Terran-1 first, then, from 2024, the fully reusable rocket (1er and 2e floor) Terran-R.
The very first example of Terran-1 is currently being tested at Cape Canaveral, at the company-leased LC-16 site, and appears to be performing as expected for maiden liftoff in a few months. Relativity Space, which uses large machines to produce its stages by additive printing, is counting on a rapid ramp-up and various fundraising events to secure a place in the light and medium launcher segment. A road that we know is winding, but Relativity Space gives itself the means. Just like Impulse Space, it has everything to prove, except its ambition.
Source : NASA Space Flight
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