Mikhail Kokorich, founder of the Momentus startup, which is developing new space engine technology with the support of Y Combinator, did not immediately realize that he was going to the moon. He graduated from Novosibirsk University and became a serial entrepreneur, earning his first money immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Momentus technology is a new propulsion system that uses water instead of chemicals as a propellant.
According to Kokorich, water is good for several reasons. First, there is a lot of it in space. Second, it is a more efficient and better propellant for flight beyond low Earth orbit. "Chemical cravings are great when you need to develop high deadlifts," says Kokorich. But as soon as the boat goes beyond gravity, the water is just better and that's it.
“We can get tens of tons into geostationary orbit much faster” than many companies that use ion engines, for example, because the latter take months to accelerate.
The company has already entered into an agreement with European flight operator ECM Space, which will help it carry out the first tests of the propulsion system on a microsatellite in early 2019.
The first product will produce pulses of 150-180 seconds and have a power of up to 30 watts.
Kokorich now lives in the USA. His first company, Dauria Aerospace, raised $ 30 million to operate, but stiff competition from US firms and Crimean sanctions against Russia are taking their toll on the entrepreneur's business.
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“It was purely political immigration. I have no opportunity to do business, because I have to work with the government, and the government would not like me,”says the entrepreneur.
Together with the startup Momentus, Kokorich will try to solve the problem of space transportation. “When transportation costs go down, new business models emerge,” he says. Momentus technology, in his opinion, could reduce the cost of travel to deep space and open up opportunities for new ventures, such as asteroid development and lunar transit.
Ilya Khel